Today. And we have some special guests who actually want to point out. So Mike and Angie Lopp are over here. So Mike was a pastor for a number of years, almost 30 years at Trinity Baptist Church in Reedsburg. And our entire time here, my family and I, entire time here, 16 years now.
They’ve been really good friends to us and to Red Village Church, especially in the beginning when we were first getting started, Mike was just a real mentor and friend to me. So much so that him and I decided to wear very similar sports coats today. So if you’re want to thank him for his service to our church and his friendship to me, just look at my sports coat. Look for someone else wearing a sports coat like it and you’ll find Mike. Okay, so that being said, if you have a Bible with you, open up to the Gospel of Luke.
We’re going to continue in our study today. So our text of study is Luke 5, 2739. If you don’t have a Bible, there are pew Bibles scattered throughout. It’s on page 502. 2.
And if you’re visiting with us, so we do a style of preaching called expository preaching. And so what I’m going to do, I’m going to read the passage for us, I’m going to pray, ask for God’s blessing on our time, and then we’re going to actually walk right back through the passage. So if you open up your Bible, please keep them open throughout the entire service. The desire that we have is just for God’s word to speak to us this morning. So Luke 5, 2739.
So. So if you want to follow along with me, I’ll be reading out of the English Standard version of the esv. So please hear the words of our God. After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me.
And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house. And there was a large company of tax collectors and others climbing at the table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered them, those who are well have no need of physician, but those who are sick, I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance.
And they said to him, the disciples of John fast often and offer prayers. And so the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. Jesus said to them, can you make a wedding Guest fast while the bridegroom is with them. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them. And in those days they will fast.
He also told them a parable. No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it’ll be spilled and the skins will be destroyed.
But new wine must be put forth, put into new, into fresh wine skins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new. For he says the old is good. So that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?
God, thank you for bringing us here together this morning. And Lord, as much as we love to sing and fellowship, the reason why we’re here this morning is because we want to hear from you in your word. So Lord, we pray that you would speak, oh Lord, that you would speak through the folly of my preaching. God, please help me to be a good communicator. Help me to speak truth, clarity and conviction.
God, please be with the congregation. Please give them ears to hear to hear what the Spirit is saying to our church. Pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. So recently I just finished up reading through the New Testament book of first Corinthians, where at the end of chapter two there’s a passage that basically splits mankind into two camps, which is really the reality we see throughout Scripture.
So in first Corinthians labels these two camps as one being the natural man, which is one who cannot, will not understand the things of God. In fact, to the natural man, the things of God come across as but like foolishness, particularly when it comes to the cross of Christ Jesus dying in the place of sinners seems foolish, unnecessary. Then the other camp is what first Corinthians refers to as like the spiritual person who is a person who has the spirit of God living inside them, which comes through the new birth, where through the power of the spirit living inside, one can actually have the mind of Christ, which makes it possible to understand deep spiritual truths, to be able to discern that which is true. So the things of God make sense to the spiritual man, where the spiritual man is able to see the wisdom of God and how he’s at work in the world. Particularly when it comes to the cross of Christ or the cross Jesus dying for sinners, only to rise again from the dead on the third day for the spiritual man that is being understand as the wisdom of God for salvation for all who would believe.
Now, I share that with you this morning because we come to a passage that is not only pointing to the new birth, which we’ll get to at the end, which comes to the new covenant that Jesus is ushering in for all who would believe, including in our text someone who had been very unlikely, seemed very unlikely to receive God’s love and mercy leading to salvation. But also we come to a text where we see the folly of natural man found in the religious leaders of the day who just could not understand what Jesus was doing, in fact stood in opposition towards the Lord Jesus Christ and his work in the world. Okay, now before we get into text, just a reminder where we left off last week, which is verses 12 through 26 of chapter 5. And that details two stories of men that Jesus healed who had some real negative social stigma tied to them. So you may remember if you hear last week, the first was a man who had leprosy, which is a very painful skin disease that would have basically required the man to isolate himself from the rest of society.
The second was a man who was paralyzed, which in the text seemingly is viewed by society as him getting something he deserved. Where in these two passages, despite the social stigma that these two men would have carried, Jesus came to them and he cared for them and he loved on these two men in ways that have been so unexpected for the rest of society. In fact, Jesus care and love that he showed these two men, particularly for the religious leaders, would have been like scandalous towards them for Jesus to love them in such a way, where we ended our text last week, through the care, through the love that Jesus had for these two men, even though it was hard for society, I’m sure to understand how we can care and love for them in such ways. The text ended with the crowd leaving the scene in awe of him by bringing glory to God for the extraordinary things that they saw take place. Well, not everyone in the crowd, the aforementioned religious leaders today, the Pharisees, the scribes, seemingly leftist, seemed like more and more frustrated and upset at the Lord Jesus Christ, which is something we’re going to see in our text today.
In fact, this is something that we continue to see throughout the Gospel of Luke, where the religious leaders become more and more upset at Jesus because it becomes harder and harder for them to understand. They just could not get it. They could not understand the mission that the Lord Jesus was on. They could not understand how Jesus would love and care for Those in their minds should have been shamed and judged, which in large part they don’t understand because their pride would not let them, or they proved to be natural men, even though they were religious leaders. By the way, it’s not just the religious leaders who had a hard time understanding Jesus.
As we continue in our study of Luke, we actually see even more and more from the crowd turning on Jesus, where in time they actually call for Jesus to be crucified. Okay, so that’s intro. If you look back, Starting in verse 27 of our text, as much as we’re just going to kind of walk through this verse by verse. So verse 27 reads this, it says after this. So after this is referring to the healing of the paralytic so he could walk as well as Jesus forgiving the paralytic of his sins, which was much to the anger and, and dismay of religious leaders, particularly that Jesus forgave this man of his sins.
And what made this angry, if you may remember, angry, which we may remember from last week. The leaders rightly understood that only God can forgive sins. However, what they did not understand is that Jesus actually is God in the flesh. So after this in the text, Jesus went out and he saw a tax collector named Levi, who also is called Matthew, who is the same Matthew who wrote the gospel account that we call Matthew. In fact, the story of Levi or Matthew is actually one he recorded himself in Matthew chapter nine.
And my hunch is that Matthew is the one who shared this story with Luke. So as Luke is writing his gospel, as you may remember, in the start of going through his studies, based on eyewitness accounts, my hunch is that Matthew was one of the eyewitnesses who Luke interviewed. So in the text, as Jesus saw Levi, he saw Levi while he was at work sitting at the tax booth. Now, just a few things here. So these tax booths, they were kind of scattered throughout the region to collect taxes for the Roman government who ruled over the area.
And this was much to the dismay, much to the frustration of the Jewish people. Second, because of this dismay, this frustration the Jewish people had, they despised tax collectors, particularly those who were Jewish tax collectors, which Levi was. So to the rest of the Jews, Levi, other Jewish tax collectors, they would have felt like traitors to them. So different commentaries I read this week, tax collectors are so despised, so hated. In later Jewish writings, tax collectors are lumped together with, like, thieves and murderers.
They’re viewed as society, as robbers who stole for the Jewish people, which seemed like often the taxpayers were accused, perhaps rightly so of overtaxing so they could pocket extra for themselves. Furthermore, when I read this past week that tax collectors would have been a complete disgrace towards one’s family. So this was a society that was based on shame and honor. And it would have been absolute shame, an embarrassment for a family member to become a tax collector, one that may have left them estranged from their family at times. Tax collectors were expelled from the synagogues, which not only are the religious centers, but also the center for all Jewish life.
So you can imagine for a tax collector how isolating it would have been to the rest of society to keep going, to keep piling on. Because tax collectors were viewed as thieves who are greedy, untrustworthy, they were, like, disqualified from being like a judge or even like a witness in the court of law. In addition, even read that tax collectors, if they physically touched a house because they were so despised, so hated, so much of a social outcast, that the house would have been labeled unclean because of them. So last week we talked a good amount about the social stigma that the man with leprosy and the paralytic man would have faced. So for a tax collector, this person would have faced far, far greater social stigma.
You know, for the leper, for the paralytic, society would have sure avoided it, judged them as being inferior, but probably in a little bit more of like a passive way or maybe a little more quietly, they would avoid them. But for the tax collector, Levi, there would have been an active avoidance in judgment where those in society probably were very eager to give tax collectors, like, a piece of their mind every time they dropped off their taxes, every time they walked by the tax collecting booth. So it’s not a stretch to consider a tax collector like the most hated person in society, even more than, like the Romans who ruled over them. As I mentioned, the tax collectors would have been viewed as traitors, like the lowest of the societal low. So for us, as we think about this passage this morning, this is what we need to realize how hated, how despised Levi would have been by society.
Yet that is who Jesus is looking at in the text. And he’s looking at him not with judgment, but with interest. Which leads to the third thing I want to point out here. Let me mention just that little word saw in the text. So Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi.
So this word is not like communicating Jesus, like kind of casually going out for a walk. And as he walked by the tax collector booth, he just so happened to see that Levi was there at work, rather in the Pillar commentary. Among other commentaries I read this week, this word saw communicates Jesus like looking intently, purposefully at Levi, like he’s almost like studying Levi, where Jesus is intently looking past who he was as a tax collector, which no doubt was all society could see in ways that Jesus is now looking at Levi as a person. Okay, hold on to this. We’ll come back to this later.
Back to verse 27. Jesus intently looked at Levi sitting at the tax collecting booth. We see Jesus do something incredibly unexpected and we see that he like calls out to Levi not to yell at him, not to disgrace him, not to try to humiliate him, to judge him, to condemn him, to shame him, not to give Levi a piece of his mind for being a traitor. Rather, Jesus calls out to Levi with compassion and kindness, grace calling to Levi to follow me, to come have fellowship relationship with Jesus, to be with him, to join his growing inner circle. This is the same basic call that Jesus gave to Simon Peter and the other fishermen.
James, John, sons of Zebedee, the start of chapter five. Now, for Levi, I’m sure this call had to be one that was hard for him to understand. I mean, he would have known how he stood in front of the rest of society, how the rest of society would have viewed him. This had to be shocking to be called by Jesus in this way. Likewise, I’m sure whoever’s at the scene with Jesus, they also had to be shocked.
In my mind, I was just thinking like Peter and James John probably were there. This had to be hard to understand, shocking. If they’re there, it seemed likely they probably would have known Levi because of taxes that they would have had to pay. And if they knew Levi, I’m sure at the scene, this had to be hard in the process, hard to understand. I mean, after all, just beginning the chapter, they just left everything.
The father Jesus now here. Soon afterwards, he’s calling Levi, of all people, Levi to come join them. In my mind, I always say, like Jesus, are you sure this guy, Are you? Are you sure, Levi? And for us, let’s not underestimate also how confusing this call would have been to everyone, including Levi.
Even Levi was just in my mind thinking like, wait, are you talking to me? You actually want me to come follow you, to live in relationship and fellowship with you, only for Jesus to say, yes, I want you to come live in relationship with me and the rest of us. This is shocking news. However, it became clear to Levi that this call from Jesus was indeed for him a genuine call. It was in verse 28 if you want to take your eyes there, David basically responds the same way that Simon Peter did at the start of the chapter in our text.
He rose, he left everything and he followed after Jesus. Which by the way, on that note, this is the only way one actually can follow Jesus. To have like a willingness and desire to leave all things in order to have him. Which if you’ve not yet done that, I want to urge you to do that today. In fact, even in this moment, listen, you cannot ride the fence when it comes to following after Jesus.
Christian scripture, there’s only two options, two camps. Either you’re for him or you’re against him. Either you’re gonna set your heart to by faith, follow him or not. Friend, there’s no like middle ground. There’s not some type of like in between camp you can join with like one foot in and one foot out.
So yes, this is a heavy call that Jesus gives if we’re going to follow him. But friend, the reward of having Jesus is far greater than any cost you might have to pay. He indeed is worth leaving everything behind in order to have him. Verse 29, Levi got up and followed him. At some point we see him start to engage with his social circle, which in the text were others who were like off ostracized by society, including some of his co workers, fellow tax collectors.
And as Levi started to engage with his social circle, we see he has a great idea. He’s going to throw a party, a party for his network to meet Jesus. So Levi gave his social circle an invitation to a great feast that he was going to throw at his house. And his invites went out from Levi. In the text we see the social circle warmly received them as they got them.
In the text, a large company of fellow tax collectors, among others or others of the same kind, other social outcasts all made their way over to his house. Whereas they entered in, we read that they sat down reclining at the table. This is a picture of like a fellowship were based on the context. As he sat down, Jesus was the one who was seated in the center, like the most honored place around the table. Because Jesus is the guest of honor of Levi, the guest of honor that Levi wanted to introduce his social circle to.
Now for us, this here, this is Levi, a brand new, I mean brand new follower, follower of Jesus Christ. And he’s seeking to evangelize his social network through the act of like hospitality, which in my opinion is one of, if not the best way to introduce one’s social circle towards Jesus Christ. So if you’re looking to share Christ with a friend, a neighbor, a co worker, which I hope we all are, can I encourage you throw a party at your house, Invite people in to dine with you in ways that you’re seeking to put Jesus at the center of the party. And this really is a great time to throw a party because for many, Kevin fever is starting to really settle in and people are looking to get out of the house, looking for some reason to get out of the house. So he hears you throw a party.
Verse 40. As this great feast is taking place, somehow the Pharisees, the scribes, you know, the religious leaders, the social elite, as mentioned, are getting more and more frustrated and anointed Jesus. Somehow they caught wind of what was taking place. You know, this party filled with outcasts, with traitors, sinners, with Jesus as the guest of honor, which only made them like more frustrated and angry and annoyed at Christ. So appears they made their way over to the house of Levi to confront Jesus.
Although perhaps this confrontation came sometime later. We kind of get the sense that this confrontation took place like during the feast. While this party’s happening, as the Pharisees describe, seemingly arrived at the scene. We see that they call over some disciples of Jesus to themselves to have a little conversation, a conversation where they’re going to grumble to them about that which was taking place. Which in the text.
The grumbling here I think is actually meant to take our minds back to the Exodus. Remember how the people of God would grumble to Moses about their dinner menu they didn’t approve of, which ultimately them grumbling about the Lord and how he’s providing for them and caring for them, which was not like up to their standard. So here the grumbling Pharisees, the disciples are grumbling about Jesus, how he’s caring for sinners, which is nowhere near their standard. Their standard would have been to actively avoid and judge and shame the people’s party. Certainly not have like fellowship with them in ways that showed care and concern for them as people.
So the Pharisees called disciples of Jesus over to grumble. They did so in ways I think they felt like they caught Jesus here red handed. We’re through this part. They’re finally able to convince everyone that Jesus is just really not who they think he is. Certainly not someone we’re following, certainly not the Christ.
So they said disciples of Jesus. So why is it that that you eat and drink, have fellowship relationship with tax collectors and sinners?
Do you not know who’s at the party with you right now.
This is ridiculous. In fact, what you do right now, this is actually scandalous. Do you not know? To defend God’s honor, these people should not be treated kindly, rather to be judged and condemned for their actions. You’re to avoid them at all cost, not fill this big elaborate feast as the Pharisees describes are grumbling to disciples about the Lord Jesus.
We see that Jesus like shows up in the conversation. And as he shows up, he had something to say back to those who were grumbling about him and what he was doing, the care and the love that he’s showing towards sinners. And as he shows up, as he says something to him, he does by giving an illustration. Verse 31, saying, Tell me this then, Pharisees, is it true that those who are well have no need of physician, but those who are sick, which in this illustration Jesus clearly speaking himself as being a physician and the sick being sinners, that he was cared for? And as Jesus used this illustration to ensure the Pharisees, the scribes, religious leaders understood what he was Getting at, verse 32, he explains it by saying, listen, I have not come to call the righteous, but I’ve come to call the sinners to repentance.
Okay, now a couple things here. First, on the positive, this is Jesus affirming his love for all kinds of people, including those who are basically deemed as unlovable by society, those who might not understand how he could love them, where in his love, Jesus comes to sinners as the great physician of our souls, who call sinners to himself through repentance and faith, that they might receive the care and the love that we all need, that we might receive the forgiveness of sin that we all need so that we might have relationship with him. And second, in the negative, this is Jesus now condemning the proud, the self righteous Pharisees and scribes who didn’t see their need for Jesus, who stood in judgment, condemnation over Jesus and those he was ministering to, who in their own pride somehow thought they could make themselves righteous by their own righteous works and keeping the Old Testament law, which we’re going to come back to in just a bit. So for us on the positive, none of us are beyond the love of Jesus, no matter how sinful we are, how socially unacceptable we might feel we are or we are deemed to be. The promise of Scripture is all who by faith come to Jesus through repentance and faith, who are willing to leave all things behind in order to have him, the promises that they will know his Love, he will care for them as the great physician of the soul.
They will have eternal relationship with Jesus Christ where they will know him, or better said, they will be known by him. But then on the negative, right, we can’t be proud, we can’t be self righteous Pharisees who look down our noses at others or beating our own self righteous chest, which if honest, I think we know how easy this can be for us to do, where we might deem others who we feel are just too bad as sinners, too far gone, undeserving to know Jesus, who are just like so much easier to condemn and avoid. Keep going to text verse 33.
After Jesus turned on the Pharisees, we see the Pharisees not give up, not walk away with their tail between their legs, or even better, we don’t see them repent and turn to Jesus. Rather what we see them do is dig in and they try to turn this conversation back on the Lord, clearly not humbled by what Jesus said. So in their pride they said to him, okay, Jesus. So one of the things that we have observed about the disciples of John, which here, this is John the Baptist, who we’ve come across a few times in the study of Luke. John was a great forerunner to prepare the way for Christ.
So one of the things we observed about disciples of John is how often they fast and offer up prayers, which by the way, in the text, Jesus, in case you’re not already aware of this, this is something that our disciples do as well. This is obviously an attempt to like brag and justify themselves, to brag about their own greatness. But Jesus, one of the things we have also observed, in fact, what we are observing right now at this party is how your disciples, they eat and drink, which is clearly the Pharisees implying that Jesus disciples were inferior because Jesus was inferior. So Jesus, how do you explain this here? This is the Pharisees continue to think like they’re catching Jesus in some type of trap by which they could like completely discredit him before all those who are present.
However, as the Pharisees, as clever as they thought they were, assumed they were, as he tried to turn the conversation to set this trap for Jesus to prove to be no match for our Lord. Where in the end this conversation actually continued to be turned on them as the traps ended up being set on them, which we see starting in verse 34 and throughout the end of our passage. So verse 34, if you want to take guys there, we see Jesus giving them some more illustrations, starting with that Of a wedding, Jesus said to them a very pointed question, can you make a wedding guest fast while the bridegroom is with them? Which in this illustration, this question. So during this time, so God’s people were called to fast.
Throughout scripture, there are actually some additional times of fasting that were done by society. However, exceptions were made from fasting if there was a wedding, because weddings were a time to party and these weddings would be done like over like a multiple day party. So in this illustration, the answer to Jesus question is no. Wedding guests do not fast while the bridegroom is still there.
When the bridegroom is still present, the guests are to party, they’re to celebrate. Furthermore, verse 35, Jesus said, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them. When the party, the celebration will come to an end. And when that happens during those days, then the guests will fast. Now, this year.
First, this is Jesus catching the Pharisees in his trap, reading the Pharisees who have to admit fasting and a wedding feast don’t happen at the same time. Second, in this illustration, Jesus is now referring to himself as the bridegroom and his followers are the wedding guest. Which explains why the disciples of Jesus were like eating and drinking. Why? Because he was with them.
Third, in this illustration, Jesus is speaking towards the resurrection ascension that was about to come, which after that took place, then his disciples would fast. Which by the way, as Christians, this is why fasting should be part of our normal spiritual disciplines with God. To keep going and to push this further, to further trap set the trap against the Pharisees. Jesus continued to give another illustration our passage to continue to prove his point. You’re going to take your eyes at verse 36 as he told the parable, saying, no one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment, because if one did that, he will tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old.
So in this picture, in this illustration, so think of an article of clothing that has like a hole in it where you try to patch the hole by putting something over the place of it, but the patch that you use shrinks as it is washed. And this new patch as it shrinks, not only tears itself away, but also makes a hole bigger. So in this parable, to put a new patch over an old hole, this would actually be a foolish thing to do. This would not make sense to mix the old and the new. It would not work.
Keep going. Verse 37, similar illustration, Jesus also said likewise, no one puts new wine into old wineskins. That also would be foolish. It would not make sense. It would not work, because if one did that, the new wine with this fermenting would stretch out the old less than elastic wineskin in ways that caused the old wineskin to burst, which not only would spill the wine to the ground, but also would destroy the wineskin.
Verse 38. This is why we must put new wine into fresh wineskin, which here, once again, everyone agree with this illustration as well. In fact, both these illustrations, everyone would understand that the new and the old are to remain separate, like they don’t mix together. And finally the scene ends where we’re going to end today. Verse 39, which is a statement of sarcasm and judgment.
She’ll explain why in just a bit she said this. And no one after drinking new wine, for he says the old is good. Okay, now let me hit pause and try to explain this parable. So obviously Jesus is giving more than just advice or thoughts concerning like alterations to one’s clothes or what to do when it comes to like storing wine. Rather than this parable, Jesus is just trying to show and prove the point that the new and the old do not mix.
You can’t take something from the new, something from the old and make it work together. The new is to be left alone by itself. And as Jesus did this, he was hitting on something that no doubt the Pharisees or religious leaders would have been picking up on. So in the Old Testament there’s an old covenant that God’s people received from Moses, which is referred to as the law. There also is a promise of a new covenant that is to come, that the Christ would be ushering in on the old covenant.
The law given to Moses, even though it was a good law, but in the end was given to help God’s people. In fact, all of people see that on our own we’re actually not good because we all have broken God’s good law. We’ve all been disobedient before God, thus under the judgment of God, unable to make ourselves righteous before God. So this is something that the natural man does not understand or accept. There’s something certainly true of the Pharisees at the scene where they tried to justify themselves before God, before others, by their own self righteous deeds by keeping the law.
This is why they found it so easy to judge others who they felt they were so much better than. However, in the promised new covenant that is to come, that Jesus the Christ would usher in, this would come through his gospel for all those who put their faith in him, including like ostracized sinners like Levi. We’re in this new covenant, the obedience of Jesus, the righteousness of Jesus is actually counted as our righteousness, our obedience. We’re in the new covenant. God takes out hearts of stone that are dead and in sin and puts in hearts of flesh that are now alive towards God so that through the new birth we might become a spiritual person and able to discern that which is true.
And, and this is all because of the kindness and the grace of God which makes the new covenant a far better, a far superior covenant. So this parable, this is actually what Jesus is getting at here, that we don’t try to mix the old covenant, the law and the new covenant found in his gospel that he was about to deliver to make some type of like glosspel. The new covenant is fully new. It is meant to stand alone. It is simply repentance and faith in Christ, in Christ alone, by the grace of God alone.
That is how we are made right with God, not by our own self righteous deeds. The text as Jesus ended with sarcasm judgment. He does so by pointing out how the Pharisees happily drink the old wine instead of embracing the new wine. And this he condemned the Pharisees for loving the old covenant so much that they tried to like accomplish their own self righteousness and ways that they had no desire for the new covenant to come in, ultimately no desire for Jesus, feeling that they were just good with the old covenant where the new seemed almost foolish to them. Now, as we begin to close, I want to do so by addressing both camps that I mentioned at the start of the sermon.
So the natural man, those who do not yet believe in Jesus Christ, and then the spiritual, the one who does. So first of those who are here who have maybe yet to believe, whether you’re still maybe not fully understanding Jesus and the love that he has, or perhaps maybe you feel you’re like too sinfully sick to be healed by him. Or perhaps as mentioned earlier, maybe you’re trying to like ride some type of fence where you kind of like the idea of following Jesus, but the cost is maybe more than you’re willing to pay, or perhaps you just feel like you’re just too far different to ever be called by Jesus. So if that’s you, please, please know how grateful we are here or that you’re here today. And please let me plead with you again to turn and trust in Jesus and follow him today, even this moment, to believe the new covenant that he ushered in to Trust and believe that Jesus came and died for you to take on the punishment of your sin so you could be healed, forgiven.
This morning, believe that not only did Jesus die, but he rose again from the dead to prove that he is the great bridegroom who came, the great bridegroom who promises to come again where he will take all of his people of faith, including you, to an eternal feast, an eternal party that is to come, where forever and ever you enjoy fellowship with him and all of his people. This morning, friend, would you repent? Turn from your sin and turn to Jesus. Receive him, receive his grace, receive his love, receive his mercy, and follow him all of your days. Now, to those here who have already done that, who by the grace of God, have the spirit of Christ living inside, where you’re a spiritual person able to discern the wisdom of God.
For us, may this passage further motivate us, encourage us for the work set before us, which is a work to be a witness for Christ. Or perhaps we’re even like fasting and praying that God would help us in this work. You know, for me this week, as I think about this passage, I found this passage both challenging and encouraging. Challenging, challenging. And that Jesus called himself someone that was despised by society.
We’re in this challenge. I wonder how many times I’ve been like a Pharisee, where I’ve written people off, where I’ve not been able to look past whatever social stigma that was attached to them in ways I stopped seeing them as a person in need of Jesus Christ. It was challenged, where am I a Pharisee? I was encouraged, so encouraged this week, first by the Lord, who thankfully does see past what’s on the surface, as mentioned, as he calls all kinds of people to himself, including those we might not expect to ever come to faith, but also is so encouraged by Levi in this passage, mentioned this earlier. Michigan He’s a brand new, brand new, hardly knows anything, brand new follower of Jesus Christ.
And seemingly the first thing he does, he shows incredible hospitality by throwing an elaborate, no doubt an expensive party so that he can introduce his social circle to the Lord Jesus and friends. May that be true of us. He said, again, this is actually a great time to do this, to follow this example and try to show hospitality to our own social circles. We’re trying to put Jesus at the center. Now, as I close, let me do so just with one more parable that Jesus happened to share later on in Luke 1 that we actually get to in the months to come, which a parable he actually shares before tax collectors and Pharisees, who actually are together multiple times before Jesus in Luke.
And this is a parable that not only further captures the heart that Jesus has for sinners calling to Himself, but hopefully the heart that we as people are to have when that happens. This is from Luke 15. Just listen to this. We’ll work through this passage in the weeks to come. So now tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him, meaning Jesus.
And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, still grumbling, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he, Jesus told in this parable, what man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the 1 that is lost until he finds it. And when he’s found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so.
I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner repents than over 99 righteous person who needs no repentance this morning if you came here in the camp of being a natural person who’s lost friend, may you be found. This morning if you came here as a spiritual person who has been found, may you long for more and more to come to Jesus. And may the lost being found be a great passion, the great rejoicing of your heart. Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you for Jesus.
And Lord, please help us to set our eyes on Him.
And Lord, I do pray if there are any here that have yet to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, to taste and see that indeed he is good, that today through the power of your spirit, through your word, that you would give new birth to that person or persons, that you would call them to yourself, that even in this moment you’d be the great physician of their soul.
Lord, I know many of us here have been found by you.
And Lord, please help us to live out our lives in ways that honor your.
And Lord, please just give us a real passion for the lost, even those that might be deemed as socially unacceptable.
Lord, thank youk just for the new covenant found in youn blood that we’re about to celebrate here in just a bit. God, please be with our church and pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.