Jackie Hill Perry | Mark 2:13-17 | 10/2/2017

god bless you Saints I like when people talk to me I said god bless you saying how are you I know it's morning I understand it's morning and you're a little stale but God woke you up this morning I have a lot of respect for people that go to school and stay there because I went to a Christian college when I was like 19 and I got suspended after a semester because I literally didn't do anything I even cheated on my math test they used to have to use to have to memorize Scripture and if you like wrote the scripture down successfully you would get extra credit and I like pulled up my Bible app and just like started writing it down it was just terrible I wasn't all the way saved yet so I just have respect for y'all you know that you lasted this long god bless you there are a lot of different people in the world you got men and women black and white Asian and Hispanic athletes and musicians poets and preachers seminary scholars and stay-at-home moms that is not mutually exclusive by the way Starbucks lovers and delusional Dunkin Donuts addicts I'm sorry it tastes like gas tastes like gas I'm sorry with so many different kinds of people around us you would think that it would be difficult for them all to have some sort of commonality among them but there is one thing that connects us all it is an identity that no matter our color context or coffee preference and before something miraculous takes place it completely rules all that makes us this all-inclusive identity that names us all is that of a sinner we are all born as one yet there is even a distinction among sinners in a specific sense you have liars murderers drunkards sexually immoral proud unloving unforgiving kinds of sinners but in a general sense you simply have two kinds of sinners you have those who know that they are sinful and you have those who are sinful but believe they are righteous and mark 2 we find Jesus dealing with both I hope we have our Bibles because I would like us to read the text once again mark chapter 2 verses 13 through 17 he went out again beside the sea and all the crowd was coming to him and he was teaching them and as he passed by he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth and he says to him follow me and he rose and followed him and as he reclined at table in his house many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and His disciples for there were many who followed him and the scribes of the Pharisees when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors said to his disciples why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners and when Jesus heard it he said to them those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick I came not to call the righteous but sinners Jesus had just finished healing a paralytic man and after doing so he starts walking beside the sea the crowd notices him and starts coming towards him for they had either heard of or have personally seen his miracles such as when he cleansed the man from an unclean spirit or when he healed many various diseases while he stayed at Simon's house shoot he had even done something most wouldn't have the courage to do which it says which is to touch a leper but as soon as he did the man was a leper no more this crowd knew that Jesus had the power to do what their doctors couldn't so they flocked to him the text tells us doesn't tell us that any physical healings were done this time around Jesus chose to teach them instead we may not have been given his sermon manuscript but we can assume that it was all about God earlier in the book of Mark after the baptism of Jesus we are told that Jesus went around Galilee preaching the gospel of God it is to be expected then that Jesus would still be preaching the same message in Capernaum while walking beside the sea as he walked the text tells us that Jesus Jesus noticed somebody it says that as he passed by he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus that might seem minor to you but even that is the kindness of God that he noticed Levi for all we know Levi did not flag Christ down like a god what's up or beg him to stop by his boots without any initiation on the part of Levi God still saw him and did Jesus didn't just see Levi with no context to the kind of person Levi was the text tells us that he saw Levi sitting at the tax booth Jesus saw Levi in action he sees Levi in his usual context that of a tax collector the Jews hated tax collectors I barely like the IRS now so I completely understand one reason being that they saw them as traitors because most tax collectors were Jews who were working for the oppressive Roman Empire another reason being that most tax collectors were thieves they would charge their fellow Jews more in taxes so that they could take a little off the top for themselves so when Jesus sees Levi what would have been expected is for him to look the other way to allow the sinfulness of Levi to cause him to completely reject Levi but Jesus doesn't do what all the other religious leaders would have done he does something completely different and incredibly controversial he looks at Levi and says follow me follow me doesn't Jesus know what kind of man this is why would he invite him into his company these two words had not been spoken to to many he said to Simon and Andrew while they were fishing in the Sea of Galilee after hearing it they both had left everything he called James and John while they were working as well what words he are spoken we are not sure but whatever it was they too followed him after hearing it isn't it interesting that just as Jesus saw and called Levi while he was working Jesus had done the same to Simon Andrew James and John Jesus is good at coming into a life without warning even in the middle of the day while life as usual is going on and bring get to a complete halt with two words follow me there is no question mark after these words it is not a suggestion or a request it is a command a command that Levi immediately obeys verse 14 says that after Jesus spoke leave our roles up and follow Jesus mark leaves out a detail that Luke chapter 5 fills us in on it says that Levi got up leaving everything and followed him did you hear the additional piece of information that makes this narrative that much more compelling Levi didn't just follow Jesus and return to his regular life the next day it says he left everything another way to read it is that he forsook all that is why the words follow me create great tension in the life of a sinner because to follow Christ means that you have to leave some things behind some relationships some career choices some ways of thinking truth be told the main thing that has to be forsaken is yourself do you remember when Jesus told his disciples that if anybody would come after him that they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him we cannot follow Jesus and said we cannot follow Jesus and maintain an allegiance to ourselves or our rights or our desires or our goals anything that keeps you from him must die so that you may follow him and him alone Levi obeys knowing that he is leaving a lucrative career the Vai obeys knowing that he is leaving a lifestyle our comfort Levi obeys knowing that he is giving up a major piece of himself but he does it because there is clearly something about Jesus that makes him count everything is lost compared to the worth of knowing him after all of this Jesus ends up chillin at leave House can you imagine Jesus being at your house I would clean up everything you know do you want Dunkin Donuts or coffee I don't know they're not the same verses verse 15 says and as he reclined at a table at table in his house many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and His disciples Jesus is sitting at a table eating with tax collectors and sinners they are most likely friends of Levi that he has invited over to share a meal with his new Lord some scribes of the Pharisees happen to find out where Jesus is is where Jesus is and who he is there with verse 16 says that they then questioned his disciples about why he Jesus is eating with sinners now so their defense from the outside looking in I can see why they are so confused at the sight of Jesus sitting with sinners perhaps in the forefront of their minds is psalms 1 to them it might have looked like jesus is walking in the counsel of the wicked and standing in the way of sinners but what they didn't have the faith to see is that this was isaiah 7 coming to pass that this man sitting among sinners was indeed the prophesied son whose name was not only Jesus but Emmanuel for he was the proof that God was now among them not in a burning bush or in a temple but in the flesh these unclean folk these people in desperate need of atonement were having dinner with the only lamb that they would ever need when Jesus heard what the disciples or what the Pharisees said to Jesus disciples Jesus went to them personally and said this those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick I came not to call the righteous but sinners Jesus plays the Pharisees game in his response they have a delusional overestimate of their own spiritual health so he uses a metaphorical example of their blindness to explain his mission because they believe that they are healthy that they are clean then surely then they have no need of him or so they think it sounds a lot like how some of us might be thinking of ourselves today those of us who because we may know scripture better than most or have pastors for parents or have never committed any outwardly Grievous sins or because we are that are at a Christian school that somehow these beautifully religious activities have cleansed us of our sinful nature and have worked to make us right with God on the basis of our own perceptions of goodness to believe that would make you no different than the people that Jesus are speaking to it is interesting how people who are obvious sinners can sometimes be the quickest to repent versus the kind of sinners who believe that the subtle ways in which they sin somehow makes them a better candidate for heaven both the Pharisee and the tax collector were under the same wrath they both had the same fate for the wages of all sins secret and spoken subtle and obvious is death but as grace would have it Jesus was there on earth in the flesh among sinners so that they could be made right with him Jesus didn't come for perfect people for if he did he would have only been coming for himself there is no stain too dark no sin too small that God didn't have the power to cover this is what unbelief wants us to forget sometimes when we are dealing with unconfessed sin we feel as if we cannot admit to God what he already knows that God we cannot let God in on the workings of a heart that he already sees if you are dealing with sin today whether you are a state made righteous through Christ or a sinner not made right with God know that you are the kind of person that Jesus came down from heaven for he came for sinners this is the hope of the entire world that they don't have to remain as they are but they can but they can truly be given an entirely new identity you know the difference between the sinners sitting at the table and the sinners pointing their fingers at the table was that God had come for them both but only one side knew that they needed him Levi and his friends were hated in their society and look at entreated as the sinners that they were but the text says that many of them followed Jesus they might have had some messed-up lives at one point but at least they knew who to run to to be made clean the Pharisees didn't understand yet that their clothes or their education or their upbringing or their tassels or the good works or their knowledge of the Torah and the Catechism might have set them apart in their own community but it didn't make them any different than the world if they would have had the faith to see that this Jesus was God and that God was conversing personally with sinners without the help of a human high priest that they were sinners themselves then this scene before them woulda let them know that mercy had come that God had come to speak with them but they didn't think they needed mercy or Christ the question I want to leave you with is which one are you because whether you come to realize that you are Levi or Pharisee the good news is that Jesus has made a way of escape for both for it is better to know that you are sick so that you can be made well than it is to believe that you are well remaining sick Jesus Christ our Great Physician it is he who was pierced for our transgressions it is he who was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed let's pray God I thank you for your kindness I thank you for your gospel I pray that you would continue to reveal your son to us that we would believe him forsaking all knowing that even if we give up everything in this life if we have you we have gained all that we need thank you in Jesus name Amen [Applause]

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Length: 17min 34sec (1054 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 02 2017