Grace and Forgiveness

the following message by Alistair beg is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truth for mark chapter 2 and verse 13 once again Jesus went out beside the lake a large crowd came to him and he began to teach them as he walked along he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collectors booth follow me Jesus told him and Levi got up and followed him while Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples for there were many who followed him when the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors they asked his disciples why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners on hearing this jesus said to them it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick I have not come to call the righteous but sinners father as we turn to the Bible we thank you that it speaks to us it forces us to think in ways that otherwise we wouldn't think it creates a crossroads when we consider the claims and words and work of Jesus and we thank you that in Jesus we have one who is alive because he was raised from the dead and that all who are in Christ although they walk through the valley of the shadow of death need fear no evil because of your presence with them and because you bring them safely through on the other side into the reality of your risen presence and so it is we pray for those who've been bereaved and particularly for the Kemp family for Joanne and for the boys the girls all of their many grandchildren as they face the loss of the patriarch of their family the one who has been such a solid leader and guide and friend and companion and we ask that you will be to them all that they need in the days of this week and that you will help them when the events of Friday come around and we pray for your help as we study now for Jesus sake amen some years ago as a church we took as a statement of purpose the ten words to see unbelieving people become committed followers of Jesus Christ and we have tried as best we can to keep that before us not simply by keeping it in print but also in approaching all of the opportunities and responsibilities that we have as a church in light of the awareness of the fact that Jesus in leaving his disciples behind promised them the power and authority of the Holy Spirit so that they might go out into the world and proclaim the good news of Jesus baptizing people making disciples and establishing the work of the kingdom and as much as we pay lip service to that we recognize that there is an inherent danger in thinking that just because that is the phrase that we are able to rehearse and repeat that somehow or another that may actually be happening when in point of fight it might not and one of the great questions that is before us as a church is to look around and to see just how seriously we believe it is important for us to take the command of Jesus to go out into the world and to make disciples in other words we face the risk that after a relatively short period of time there comfortability of being in the companionable relationships with one another may dim our vision may dent our enthusiasm for seeing unbelieving people become the committed followers of Jesus and that is one of the great advantages in studying the gospel and in this instance the Gospel of Mark because very quickly in his gospel he makes it plain that Jesus is absolutely committed not to putting together a religious Club but of reaching out to those who are quite frankly the most likely people ever to be included in his band of disciples and the incident that is before us both this morning and this evening here in mark chapter 2 is a classic illustration of this truth it's not uncommon to hear people complain about how long it's taking them to see a doctor I never know whether to make much of that or not after all most of the doctors I've ever met are incredibly busy and they seem to be seeing people all the time so I think some of us need to be a little more patient eventually were seen and often I think sooner rather than later we always will be seen it's hard to imagine a doctor who worked all his way or all her way through Medical School and then decided that she didn't ever want to see patients she just wanted to be a doctor but no patients I'd like to be a doctor better then ever want to see sick people it would be a very very strange thing and for Jesus to refuse to deal with those who are despised and disreputable who are the outscoring of society would be equally absurd and that as we will see is the balance of the day unfolds lies at the very heart of this incident involving the calling of this man Levi who's also known as Matthew elsewhere in the Gospels to become a follower of Jesus it is with this that we're going to spend our time this morning looking directly at verse 14 and perhaps I should just read it again as he walked along he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collectors booth follow me Jesus told him and Levi got up and followed him it's almost there's one long sentence and it covers so much material prior to that in verse 13 you will notice that Jesus is once again out in the lakeside area the crowds are coming to him there seems to be a balance here at the end of verse 12 all the people were amazed they've never seen anything like this and then once again Jesus reverts to his prior pattern and he moves out into an outlying area away from the crowds the crowds come to him and once again as they sit or stand to hear him proclaims the good news he tells them that the kingdom of God is near that it is important for them necessary for them to repent and to believe the good news yes he touches their lives yes he heals their sicknesses yes he relieves them of demonic oppression but he hasn't come as a miracle worker he has come as a teacher of this good news and so it is that in the course of his endeavors he comes upon the scene and it is in this little verse 14 that we have the record of this radical change in the life and circumstances of this gentleman called Levi when God calls a man or a woman his callings never leave that person where they found him if God speaks to you and calls you and you try and stand still you will not be standing still you will be going backwards the callings of God never leave you where they find you you will either follow on you will either believe and obey or you will be making a forlorn attempt to stand still you will discover that you're going in the opposite direction and this is certainly true in the experience of Levi now when I read this this week and I have read this passage many times and many of you will have done the same I said to myself you know I think a little background would be helpful helpful first to me and then helpful to you because we read that he was sitting at a tax collectors booth and frankly doesn't really mean very much to us after all have you ever been in comparing him at a tax collectors booth I bet there isn't one in a thousand that haven't been anywhere close to it and even if we were in caproni and we wouldn't have known the booth if we had tripped over it so we read it but what does it really mean and what was the job that he was doing well as best as I can understand and of course there are limits to my understanding as becomes very clear week by week but as best as I can understand Levi was a Jewish tax official probably working in the realm of custom and Excise so you honor to think of him as the IRS you should think of him more as a kind of Border Patrol and you couldn't make the transition from one region into the other without paying tax either on your movements as a Tollbooth collection or more likely as a result of the materials that you were carrying from one place to the other I remember well the delight of the customs gentleman in Europe when he asked me if I brought in anything that was over a certain amount of money and I said yes I I brought in my kilt and he just couldn't wait to get his hands on that and and charge me a dreadful amount of money for an outfit that had already cost me a dreadful amount of money well that's exactly the kind of thing that Levi was doing when Herod the Great the miserable Herod the Great whom you remember from the massacre of the children in Bethlehem when he died he divided his territory largely between three of his sons each had the name Herod Herod Antipas Herod Agrippa and Herod Philip and Herod Philip and Herod Antipas had regions that essentially bordered one another they were separated by the Jordan River and the point of departure into each community the thoroughfare if you like the most obvious and normal one would be through the town or the city of Capernaum and there in that tax collectors booth would be people who were fulfilling those responsibilities and in this particular instance this man by the name of Levi now this position this job was absolutely despised these individuals were detested his role would have been to secure the privileges of the region presumably a Roman official usually known as a publican would have purchased the tax base for an area he would then hire under him tax collectors or customs of collectors and so on as long as he got his price for what that region was worth to him he really didn't care from that point out whatever those tax collectors charged so it was a wonderful opportunity for the tax collectors to charge whatever they liked they knew the number they had to make in order to fulfill their responsibilities and they were then able to devise elaborate ways whereby they could operate essentially two sets of books one that was going back to the officials and the other one that was going under the table and Levi as a result of that was actually as much an outcast socially as the leper was whom we saw just a couple of studies ago if we doubt this then let me affirm it for you that is a result of his willingness to fulfill this role to be sitting in this tax collectors booth number one he would have been regarded as a disgrace to his family his mother would not have been going out for coffee in the morning and letting everybody know how well young Levi was doing in his new position at the tax collectors booth indeed she would have done everything she possibly could to explain his job in some way that would relieve her of the despicable nature of what was going on a disgrace to his family secondly he would be disqualified from ever serving as a judge or even being part of the judicial system as a witness and thirdly he would have been disbarred from the synagogue from the opportunities of worship that would have accrued to him otherwise as a normal Jewish male so if you rehearse that for a moment you get the picture he can't go essentially to church he can't show up on jury duty and his family regarded as a complete disgrace that ever one of their children was involved in such a dreadful engagement now when I read a little more I came across a variety of things that intrigued me and this fits in the realm of intrigue I think you know me well enough now to know what we're seeing in terms of main things and plain things and what is authoritative from the Scriptures and what is merely observation if it is helpful you go with it if it is unhelpful you exit out but many of you ex owed a lot of stuff in any case so there's nothing particularly difficult for you in that but what I came across was inscriptions ancient inscriptions that had to do with fish they had to do with fish and so for example one inscription described individuals in the region of Capernaum who were concerned with the toll on fish so apparently there was at least at some point and it may not have been at this point but it could have been at this point some kind of toll on fish so then that got me thinking do I know any fishermen have there been any fisherman so far in the story that would have had to engage with this character or with his colleagues because of their work with fish and of course yes we've got Simon and we have Andrew and we have James and John we have the initial four that Jesus has called to be his followers and then I said to myself maybe Levi even knew the four of them maybe they were as a result of their business practices moving through his region and maybe as a result of the contact he would have heard something of the words of Jesus and may even observe something of the works of Jesus oh you see it doesn't say that there I understand but it doesn't not say it either in other words it is possible that Levi had a knowledge of Jesus before this encounter took place in fact I think it is likely that he did I don't I don't imagine that somebody in a place like Capernaum could be in Capernaum with somebody namely Jesus of Nazareth casting out demons healing people transforming the community in many many ways without that buzz running right through the community and as you know the person in the local newspaper office or the newsagent store at least in Britain or in the average Starbucks let's say or caribou or whatever it might be or the person that takes your ticket when you leave Hopkins Airport those are the people that pick up all the bits and pieces the buzz of today what's going on did you hear so and so just pleasantries sometimes beyond the weather sometimes only the weather but it may well have been just as this that one of the people said to the other I haven't seen I haven't seen Simon and Andrew coming through there through here for a while and somebody else said no you you you you probably won't see them and someone else says yeah I'll tell you two more you won't see you're not going to see James and Andrew and Levi said why not and someone said well the the four of them have become followers of Jesus of Nazareth they they pulled their boats up folded the necks left it in one case with their father left the family business behind and they've gone off as followers of Jesus and Levi might have sat there and said to himself Wow I wonder what that's like wonder why that's like there may be some here this morning and that's exactly where you are you've heard the story maybe even a family member a friend a work colleague who's told you that he's become a follower of Jesus and there's evidence to suggest that that has actually happened his words have changed his lifestyle has changed she's become altogether different from what she was she's still the regular person with the same DNA she still has the same personality she's still melancholic he's still a few civ whatever it might be but no doubt that he's become a follower of Jesus and you find yourself saying wow I wonder what it would be like to be a follower of Jesus do you really would you like to become a follower of Jesus nobody who ever wanted to be a follower of Jesus was turned away you can never want to be a follower of Jesus and find that he tells you you can't well Levi is about to find out and just as the leper it probably had no one other than another leper touching him for a very long time before Jesus touched him so Levi would have grown accustomed to people despising him and saying things about him that exactly commendatory after all he was not a member of the sort of ruling class he was not a member of the acceptable people in society he was despised he was rejected he was an outcast he was socially unacceptable and fight he would have been perfectly used to people telling him where to go they put their money in for the excise and he said thank you very much mister of Benjamin and Benjamin says hey Levi you know where you can go don't you you come home at the end of the day with abuse ringing in his ears people calling him out your murderous creature you stinking cheat I hate you I despise the fact that you work for the Romans you are despicable the way you steal from your own people those would have been the words he heard the people didn't go by and say thank you very much for doing such a wonderful service for the Roman authorities we all appreciate it very much indeed no no and then look at verse 14 here's something very very different here in the place of his dubious business practice stands Jesus and Jesus is not telling him where to go Jesus is telling him where to come Jesus is actually issuing to him a command a different kind of command is not get out of here it has come here in fight it is straightforward come follow me Jesus told him and Levi got up and followed him notice both the brevity and the authority of this word from Jesus no great speech no great elaborate diatribe no great explanation just a striking command follow me because you see the word of Jesus is not like the word of any other person the word of Jesus in this instance is not only marked by brevity it's also marked by authority and that word of Jesus is recorded for us in the Bible and the Bible is marked by the authority of Jesus himself that's why we pay attention to the Bible that's why we talk about the Bible has been authoritative in and of itself that's why when we read the Bible we often discover that it almost speaks out to us in our lives it's as though it is actually speaking to us in a way that is marked by Authority now who else can walk up to somebody in the middle of their day especially in a context like that and simply simply walk up and say excuse me I'd like you to just come and follow me person said I'm not gonna follow you I've got to be here at least until 5 or 6 o'clock what do you mean follow you but know the brevity and the authority is marked both by the immediacy and the totality of Levi's response follow me Jesus told him and Levi got up and followed him there's no gap it is instantaneous that's what makes it so amazing what makes it so striking and the reason I use totality is because in Luke's version of this event as he records it he gives to his one phrase that mark does not use and in Luke chapter 5 and in verse 27 and verse 28 you will see the missing phrase it's the same it's the same record after this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting in his tanks booth follow me jesus said to him and Levi got up now here's the phrase and left everything and left everything and followed him he turned his back on his illicit business he realized that if he was going to follow Jesus he couldn't follow Jesus and stay the way he was he couldn't follow Jesus and continue to dupe all his fellow countrymen he couldn't follow Jesus and continue to be a cheat he couldn't follow Jesus he realized that this was a crossroads for him that this was not somehow or another Levi the cheating tax collector adding Jesus to the sum of his life so that he had if you a religious component to his life that filled in the gap for what was missing in his inability to attend the local synagogues here was a chance for him to get involved in quotes spirituality here was an opportunity for him to add this dimension to his life no it's not that at all the command is clear the response is immediate and it is total and leaving everything he went out to follow him one of the reasons I think for so many people's disinterest in the claims of Christ is because they never hear the claims of Christ now you may be wondering about Christianity in your here today and and one of the things that put you off is frankly just seems like such a soft option and you find yourself saying I don't really know why there's much to bother about in relationship to it I mean I don't know if I want to be involved or I don't want to be involved it seems it seems so trivial Oh forgive us if we've suggested that in any way or if your friends have done so trying to make it more attractive to you trying to is it where lower the barriers so that you can so that you can come in at your own level and on your own basis that would be like qualifying for the Olympics in in high jump by making your own rules about what the Olympic qualifying height was you know so if you want to make it if you want to make it you know twelve inches hey you just qualified for the Olympics but if you want to actually deal with the standard qualification for the Olympics guess what you're not coming if the church in endeavoring to win people takes the message of Jesus dilutes it minimizes it compromises it so that people may see it as a soft option it is no surprise when the people look at it and say who cares Levi follow me when right now but but follow me and Levi got up and he follow them now the impact of this I think is fairly obvious there first of all must have been an impact on the fellows who were his colleagues in the tax collectors booth we don't have it written down we know only that they are coming along later in that later on in the week or whenever it was that he had his big party but you can imagine his friends saying to one another what in the world got into Levi what Levi Levi left yes is he coming back apparently not and the next morning he probably said himself all he'll get over that he's done he's done a lot of funny things in his life but I'm sure with by Tuesday he'll be back Tuesday comes in his in his and his place is still empty and suddenly it dawns on them he's become a real follower of Jesus if he'd been back on a Tuesday he wouldn't have been a follower of Jesus if he had responded to Jesus the way some of us have responded to Jesus when somebody either manipulated as emotionally or stirred us up in some form of aggravation and they told us what you need to do is put up your hand right now and you will become a follower of Jesus and we put up our hands and we said I guess I'm a follower of Jesus but by Wednesday of two weeks later we weren't anywhere close to following Jesus we never followed him at all we didn't go to church we didn't read our Bible we didn't tell anyone about him we didn't thank him for forgiving our sins all we had done was just put up our hands and said I think I would like to be a follower of Jesus but that only lasted about five minutes the reason you know you're a follower of Jesus is you're still following Jesus you see you may be a wretched sinner you may feel yourself to have had a horrible week but you're still following Jesus that's one of the signs of being a follower of Jesus you follow this almost too straightforward to me we could miss it couldn't we I just saw a little boy I said how old are you he said I'm five I said I used to be five and he looked up of me and I said I was five fifty-two years ago I was fine but I was five when my father led me to Christ when I nailed down by a chair in our living and I said I am a sinner forgive me I hate my sister and that's why I do bad things to her forgive me if I had no other sins that's enough to get me into hell for sure so forgive my sins and come and live in my life and make me the kind of boy you want me to be fifty-two years ago now through many dangers toils and snares I have already come but I'm still following and the reason that they knew that Levi had been changed by Jesus is because he was following don't miss the obvious come and follow me are you following Jesus don't say am i following him perfectly because you're clearly not an either and I I'm following him and his friends must have met him in the street and said are you coming back he said no I can't come back I'm following Jesus and they said to him so many of them must have said you know can you some time or another just tell me what it means to follow Jesus and he said you know what I've got a great idea you know those big barbecues that I was doing weather without really funky Jewish music well we're doing we're doing a bit I'm gonna do a big barbecue you're all coming over I'm gonna give you this story altogether I'm gonna have Jesus there and he's gonna do the thing and me and Jesus it's gonna be great if you want to come they said we're in it's a wonderful picture isn't it there's a reminder too isn't of the place of our homes our apartments in the cause of evangelism many a person came to Christ through their tummy it's not very theological but it's true mrs. son so how do you make these pies like this is this fantastic I think I was so good I could die and go to heaven oh wait a minute now do you think if you died you would go to heaven well I think probably I mean I'm a pretty good person and I figure that a good God is looking for nice people who are trying their best what if he isn't give me another one of those pies but you see that's where we go the impact on his friends the impact on Jesus immediate followers it'd be nice to think that at James and John and Simon and Andrew immediately said oh what a great idea Levi the latest member of the disciple band what a what a what a terrific deal how wonderful to have Levi nice that you're branching out Jesus and not just going for a sort of middle middle Judaism not just going for the small family business owner I have by that you're reaching beyond the territory and whatever I what a nice idea to to bring Levi what do you think I don't know we can check later but for now I don't think so no I think there's a pretty fair chance that they were going wait a minute we're four nice boys we come from a relatively nice background but if you start adding people like Levi into this it's going to dilute the pot so quickly I don't think Jesus that you want to have tax collectors and social outcasts in your group see Levi would not have been an obvious and a popular choice that order ring a bell with you it does with me do you think you were an obvious and popular choice if God saved you do you think he saved you because he found you so tremendously attractive do you think when you trusted in Christ that the angels in heaven who were rejoicing over one sinner that repenteth just rejoice rejoice rejoice or do you think there is a possibility that one angel said to another oh look look at that there's bagging now that's that the whole thing you'll go south now no that can't leak that's ridiculous though oh there's a there's one of his golfing buddies in there as well oh he's a wild man there's that between it see if you think if I think that I'm an obvious choice I don't understand the gospel I don't understand grace I don't understand forgiveness I don't understand the authority of Jesus because what this little thing illustrates is the wonder of God's grace the wonder of God's grace don't you think that Levi would have been just completely overwhelmed by the thought how could it be that Jesus would look him in the eyes and say what he said well that brings me really and we're done aren't we but the impact not only on Levi's colleagues the impact on the disciples themselves but also the impact on us today the impact on us today because it doesn't take very much for some of us to assume the Spirit of the elder brother in Luke 15 when the prodigal has come back and the party has begun remember that little encounter and the elder brother who represents the Pharisees whom are going to see tonight in the party the elder brother comes near the house and he hears the music and the dancing and he calls one of the servants and he says what's the party and the servant system oh you're gonna love this your brother is back he was lost he's found he was dead he's alive your father has just manis is a it's going wonderfully come on in join the dancing remember what it says but he refused to go in refused to go in why because he didn't understand grace I'm not going to a party that is given for someone like my brother who is a wretched sinner and who has made such a horrible mess of his entire existence if there should be any parties it should be parties for me for people I'd be and my friends good guys keeping the rules goody-two-shoes people always there ready sir yes sir no sir that's who should be in having the party no I refuse to come to the party and today there may be some of us here this morning and the reason that we are far from Jesus is not on account of our badness but it is on account of our supposed goodness the reason that we've never come and bow down before Jesus and asked him to be our Savior and begun to follow him is because of our rule keeping because of our performance because of our religious duties in fact we're really quite good and Jesus came to call people who aren't so we're actually still not Christian or some of us are still not Christian because we feel the distance to be too great on account of our mess on account of our immorality on account of our deception on account of our cheating and when the story of Jesus suddenly dawns when we realize that his call to follow is based on his commitment to the cross which is about to take place when we realize that the message of the gospel is is is as real for the Pharisee as it is for the failure and indeed it is as necessary for both then both self-righteous religious Pharisees will bow down and Trust Christ and those who feel that there is no opportunity for forgiveness or for a fresh start or for a clean page or for anything like that at all will bow down and worship Him together and when they all finally get together to the party in the house they'll be happy to sing the same songs when I was lost you came and rescued me one lost in their religious orthodoxy one lost in their cheatin rebellion reach down into the pit and lifted me O Lord such grace to qualify me as your own it is only when we realize that we are unqualified and that Christ is qualified on our behalf that we're able to get a hold of this good news and some are another compressed atomized almost in a moment leave I got it you say well I that's not the way it happened in my life no and it's not the way it happened in my life but it is the way it happened to Levis life and when I was thinking about this and thinking there's definitely gonna be some people who say oh well you know that thing in verse 14 and Levi and Jesus said follow me and then he got up and followed him it's like oh for sure you know I mean what who put that in there man no I don't happen like that well just when my mind was going all along those lines I was having dinner with three couples my wife and I on three couples and then the course of waiting for it all to begin I asked one of the fellows Shannon how he became a Christian well he goodness he started way back and in Indiana and he worked his way through basketball at high school and off and off on holiday and eventually I was I was starving waiting for for waiting for him to get to the point but here's here's what he told me here's what he told me after college he got a job a miserable job as a door-to-door salesman I can't remember what he was selling but he ready to ring the doorbell make cold calls ring the bell and say could I come in and and you know demonstrate the vacuum cleaner or whatever it was and he said his whole life was like no BAM no BAM you know getting out of here you don't ring my bell get down at gone so he spent his life with rejection every so often some of you say yes and he told me that on this one occasion after he'd been down no BAM no BAM no Bam Bam he got to a door and the person said yeah you in come in and show me your stuff so he went into showing the stuff and in the course of being in this house he said to the people your house has a real peacefulness a real peacefulness and the man said really and he said yeah the man said would you like to know how that is salesman says yeah I showed you my product go right at the man shared with him the story of his conversion and his wife's conversion and then he reached to a dresser and he took a Bible and he read him this verse if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved and he said to Shannon do you want to be saved and Shannon as surprised as anybody in the room said yes and the man led him to Christ he got out of there went home led both his brother and his sister to Christ some of you are not far from the kingdom but you're not in the kingdom because you've sung about hearing the call of the kingdom do you hear it it is a call to repentance and to faith in Jesus it is a call to be heeded and it is a call that may be heeded now so let me ask you what would prevent you from exceeding to Christ's call and becoming a Christian today and if that describes you as a follower of Jesus can we take the challenge together to be graciously increasingly bold in risking all in terms of reputation by just saying to some of our friends if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved and then to ask them would you like to be saved we might be very surprised by how many yeses we get but the only way we will ever get a response is if we're prepared to risk it all to ask the question but why would we be concerned when the stakes are so high we have little booklets through in the prayer room they're just called becoming a Christian if you would like one you can come through and get one we'd be glad to place it in your hands don't forget the chance of being with us tonight as we come to the dinner party dancing at the dinner party Oh God our Father we thank you for the Bible we thank you for this wonderful incident in the life of Levi we thank you that it speaks of grace and a forgiveness and of your power and your authority in the lives of those whom you touch and change help us to know that no one who ever wanted to come to you was ever turned away so Lord come and save us from our attempts at self justification and come as with and come and relieve us of the burden of our own mess so that we might stand up and like Levi follow you may the grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God our Father and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with each one who believes today and for evermore amen this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living learn more about truth for life with alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 4,291

Rating: 4.9583335 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: FT6l_TdRf_w

Length: 42min 35sec (2555 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 01 2020