Preached Sunday, September 22, 2013 from Luke 5:27-32
Theme: We, who have tasted of Jesus’ saving grace, can be the connection that introduces our unsaved friends to Him.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
In just a few weeks, we will—along with fellow believers all across the nation—have an opportunity to be instruments by which Jesus Christ touches the lives of others. In the first week of November, households across the country will be opening up their homes, inviting some unsaved friends and family members to join them for a meal, and have a wonderful chance to enable them to hear the message of the gospel from Dr. Billy Graham.
Dr. Graham considers this his last great opportunity to speak to the nation. It’s called “My Hope America with Billy Graham”. And it’s been my hope—and prayer—that we will have at least fifteen homes within our church family who will be willing to have some unsaved friends for dinner or a light meal, or even just some dessert, and to share the love of Jesus with them.
It’s a remarkably simple strategy—one that has been used successfully in over 50 different countries. Now, it’s being used in our own nation. Churches and church leaders all over the nation are praying for this. And perhaps not by coincidence, churches all over the city of Portland will be fasting and praying in the first week of October for revival!
So; next Sunday—right after church—I’m asking that we have a brief meeting to share how this will work, and how to get actively involved. And in anticipation of this upcoming event, I’d like to preach this morning from Luke 5:27-32. It’s the story that we have heard from before—the story of a redeemed sinner named Levi. We’re told;
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.” So he left all, rose up, and followed Him. 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. And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Luke 5:27-32).
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This man Levi is known by another name in Scripture. He was also called Matthew. He was the author of the first book of the New Testament—the Gospel according to Matthew. And this is the story of how he became one of the twelve apostles of our Lord.
Before he was one of the twelve apostles, he was a notorious sinner. He was a tax collector—or a “publican” as he’s called in some translations of the Bible. A tax collector, in Jesus’ day, was a Jewish man who collected taxes from his own Jewish kinsmen on behalf the Gentile Roman government. He was a man who made his living by collecting not only the required revenue appointed by the Roman government, but by also collecting a percentage above the required amount as his own personal cut.
Tax collectors in Jesus day were considered to be despicable traitors to their own people. They had sold-out to the occupying Gentile government. And he was doubly despised by his fellow Jews, not only because he collected taxes from his own people for the Roman occupiers, but also because his collection of that tax was characterized by greed, graft and abuse.
To get an idea of how people thought of tax collectors, all you have to do is think back to what Jesus said in the Sermon on The Mount. Do you remember how He taught that we should love our enemies? Jesus said, “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?” (Matthew 5:46-47). Tax collectors were classified as the lowest of the low; among the very worst of sinners; placed in the same category as harlots, gamblers and thieves. They were considered social “lepers”—moral “untouchables”. From a strictly human standpoint, there was no hope for a tax collector to ever find favor with God. He was not even thought worthy to be considered a normal sinner, but stood in a category all his own; which is why the Bible often uses the phrase “tax-collectors and sinners”.
But that’s what makes Levi’s story so wonderful. Jesus saved him. And then, Levi couldn’t help but invite others in his circle—others who were lost and in need of God’s saving grace—to come and meet Jesus.
And that’s where you and I come in. Just like this man Levi—just like ‘Matthew the tax collector’—God can use you and me to introduce Jesus to others who need him. Levi’s story teaches us that we, who have tasted of Jesus’ saving grace, can be the connection that introduces our unsaved friends to Him.
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Let’s look a little closer at this passage and see how this can happen. First, notice that our ability to be that connection is . . .
1. INITIATED BY OUR HAVING TASTED OF JESUS’ SAVING GRACE OURSELVES (vv. 27-28).
Take a look at how this story begins. It starts off with the words, “After these things . . .” Those words are very important. As we look backward in Luke’s Gospel, we see that “these things” were the marvelous miracles that Jesus had been performing in His public ministry.
We’re told of how Jesus was teaching in a synagogue; and of how right there in the synagogue, He cast a demon out of a man. In Luke 4:36-37, we read, “Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, ‘What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.’ And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.” Then, we go on to read of how he healed Simon Peter’s mother-in-law of a severe illness; and of how, afterward, crowds of people came to him for healing. He healed all diseases; and demons were cast out of people—crying out and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” Then the crowds got so big that he borrowed Peter’s boat and taught the people from it as they stood on the shore. Afterwards, He said thank you to Peter by sending him out for a catch in the deep waters that was so great they could barely get it all into the nets! After this, He healed a man with leprosy—which caused the crowds to grow even larger. Then, in the midst of a crowded house—a house so crowded that no one could get in—He healed a man of paralysis who was lowered down to Him from the roof.
I love what verse 26 says at the end of it all. It’s one of the greatest understatements in the Bible. The people said, “We have seen strange things today!” (v. 26). Indeed they had! And what all of these things had in common was that they were demonstrating who Jesus was. They were demonstrating the truth of what the angel had told Mary in the beginning of Luke’s Gospel—“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”
All of this is important to remember when we come to the first verse of our passage this morning. In verse 27, we read, “After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.” What an encounter!—the Man who was manifestly the Son of God in human flesh, and a man who was as despised a sinner as a sinful man could be!
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Now; don’t you suppose that Levi would have heard about all that Jesus was doing? He would have known all the talk that was going around. In Mark’s Gospel, we’re told that he sat in his tax-collecting booth by the sea. He would have been doing his work along a major thoroughfare. He would have heard the news. It may even be that he understood that God’s promises to the Jewish people were being fulfilled before his very eyes; and that the long-awaited Messiah had truly come.
But I imagine that Levi had been hardening his heart for a long time to much of what he was hearing. He had chose a life of sin. He had given himself over to the Roman authorities, and had betrayed God’s chosen people for money. No one would have thought that there was any hope of heaven for someone like Levi the tax collector; and I strongly suspect that Levi himself agreed. The Messiah may well have been right there in his own home town; but he himself lived a life of rebellion and sin—and there’s no way that the Messiah would even give someone like him the time of day.
I believe that Levi would have thought like many unbelieving people who are in our own circle of relationships today—people who are sinful and know it, and who feel utterly hopeless in their sin. Like him, they simply resolve themselves to the fact that they are going to die one day and go to eternal judgment; and that there is nothing left for them to do now but just go through the motions of living—to just carry on with their sinful way of life, and squeeze the most out of it that they can.
That’s what I believe was going on in the mind of Levi. And that’s when this amazing meeting occurred. Look at verse 27 again: “After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.” The word in the original language suggests that Jesus, as He was walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, stopped and looked intently at Levi—that He “gazed” at him deliberately. I believe it was love that made Jesus do that; but I wonder if it didn’t make Levi feel a little uncomfortable. “Why is that holy Prophet looking at me? Is He about to do what others have done before?—stand up on a nearby stump, preach a sermon about the wickedness of sin, and use me as an object lesson?”
What a complete shock it must have been to Levi—and probably to everyone else who saw it—when Jesus walked up to his tax office, looked him warmly in the eye, held out His hand to him, and said, “Follow Me.” And what an impact that had! We’re told, “So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.” To say that he “left all” means that he left all his tax records and his debt sheets and the trays of money. We’d probably be safe in assuming that he had already paid the Roman government what he owed to it; but what he left behind was all his own personal profits. And to say that he “rose up” suggests that he rose up immediately and never came back. He completely left his lucrative life of sin behind and became a follower of Jesus from then on.
And that’s where it starts for you and me, by the way. Our involvement in this upcoming work is initiated by the fact that we—too—have tasted of Jesus’ saving grace. It begins when we can say something along the lines of what the apostle Paul said;
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life (1 Timothy 1:15-16).
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Now; something like what happened to Levi also happened to me. I felt the horrible guilt of my sin; and I came to hear of Jesus’ love and forgiveness through a Billy Graham broadcast on television. I trusted Jesus that very night; and the next day, I called my best friend and told him about it. I didn’t know that it was something that you were supposed to do. It just came out! I was grateful and excited that Jesus forgave me! I wanted to celebrate it!
And that’s what we find next in the story of Levi. The desire to be the connection for someone else to know Jesus is . . .
2. ENERGIZED BY A CELEBRATION OF WHAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR US (v. 29a).
Levi was truly a transformed man. He loved this wonderful Jesus who had first loved him. In verse 29, we’re told, “Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house.” Levi had become a wealthy man through his sinful work as a betrayer of his own people. He must have had a large house to be able to have such a great feast in it. And we can imagine that it was a pretty expensive feast! But it was a feast that he had put on in Jesus’ honor. And Jesus didn’t say, “Oh no, no, no! I am a holy Man. I’m the Son of God. I can’t come to the house of such a sinful man; and eat food purchased with such dirty money. What would people say?” Far from it; Jesus went gladly to accept Levi’s expression of love.
Can I pause to insert a thought? Sometimes, we become intimidated by the idea of sharing our faith with others because we think of it as a ‘duty’. It’s something that we think we have to do in order to be a good and obedient Christian. It’s like something that we do regretfully and then immediately run from it after having done it. No wonder unbelieving people don’t want to hear from us—when we have that kind of an attitude!
But we’re not afraid to share about other things that we’re excited about, are we? Look back to verses 14-15. Jesus had healed a leper; and then told the man not to tell anyone. But the man couldn’t help it. We’re told that “the report went around concerning him all the more . . .” Soon, great multitudes were coming to Jesus. How did that happen? Well; the man simply couldn’t help it! He was excited! He couldn’t keep it in! He spread the news everywhere of what Jesus had done for him! Likewise, Levi was excited about what Jesus did in forgiving him and making him one of His disciples! He wanted to celebrate it!
That’s a great motivation! We should want to celebrate what Jesus did for us too! When I began to share my faith with my friend, I wasn’t necessarily motivated at first by the idea, “You ought to trust Jesus too!” I wasn’t intentionally “evangelizing”. I was just so excited about the fact that my sins had been forgiven that I wanted to share it!
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So; the reason Levi had this dinner was—as this passage tells us—to honor Jesus. He gave the Lord Jesus “a great feast in his own house”. But he also invited his friends. And this reminds us that we can “be the connection” when we are . . .
3. ACTIVATED BY A DESIRE TO INTRODUCE JESUS TO OUR FRIENDS (v. 29b).
Luke goes on to tell us, “And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.”
I appreciate what one commentator pointed out. When Levi had invited the other tax collectors to his home, it wasn’t as a fellow tax collector. He had already left that vocation. He was a tax collector no longer. And yet, he still had the connections with his colleagues in the business. Why would he have invited them? It would only be because he loved them. He had found the Savior, and celebrated what Jesus had done for him. And now, he wanted to introduce them to Him too.
But it wasn’t just other tax collectors. Do you suppose that Luke was being a bit gracious when he wrote about the great number of tax collectors . . . and then just used the phrase, “and others”? What kind of “others” do you think might have come with a bunch of tax collectors to the house of a tax collector? Well; we’re not really left to guess. Mark, in his Gospel, tells us “that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many . . .” (Mark 2:15).
And it wasn’t in an atmosphere in which they were exposed as sinners and made ashamed. They certainly could have been. Someone might have looked at it all and saw that a whole mob of crooks, and prostitutes, and thieves, and racketeers, and extortionists had come rolling in! But whatever the were, they clearly felt loved by Jesus too. Mark also makes this remarkable observation; “and they followed Him”.
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Here’s the suspicion I have. I don’t believe Levi got up on a table and preached a condemning message to his friends. They didn’t need one. They already knew they were sinners. They knew they were sick and needed healing. But what they didn’t know—and needed to know—was that healing for their souls was available. And all that Levi did was introduce them to Jesus and testify of what Jesus had done for him.
And this leads us to a final point. We can be the connection when we are . . .
4. MOTIVATED BY JESUS’ OWN LOVE FOR OTHERS WHO NEED HIS GRACE (vv. 30-32).
The tax collectors and sinners apparently weren’t the only ones there that day. We’re told in verse 30, “And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, ‘Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?'” They certainly wouldn’t do a thing like that!
Well; you just can’t speak something into the ear of one of Jesus’ followers without Him knowing it. And so, as Luke tells us, “Jesus answered”—What a shock that must have been!—”and said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick'” (v. 31).
What a great response! Could you imagine going to the hospital, stopping a physician, and saying, “Hey—what’s the matter with you? Are you some kind of freak or something? Why is it that you insist on hanging around sick people all the time? Don’t you have any friends who are healthy?” That would, of course, be a ridiculous thing to ask! Physicians always seem to be hanging around sick people precisely because it’s a physician’s task to make them well. Who else would we expect a physician to be associated with but people who needed a physician? That’s why, in verse 32, Jesus then said to them, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
And if I truly love someone, I’ll want to introduce them to the One who can heal their soul.
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So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; let’s follow the great example that Levi the tax collector sets for us in this passage. God has redeemed us by the love of a wonderful Savior; and He has allowed a lot of folks into our circle of relationships that need to be connected to Him. We are the connection!
Let’s please be praying for our involvement in the weeks to come in this great effort. By God’s grace, let’s be the connection!