Jesus People

Mark 2:13-17

13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15 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. 16 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?”

17 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.”

 

1. I am willing to cleanse.
2. I am able because I have authority to forgive your sins.
3. I have come to save sinners from the penalty and power of their sin!

3a. This means Messiah has not come to deliver Israel from their enemies, but from their greatest enemy, themselves!

 

The setting:

Jesus is back out traveling along the Sea of Galilee. There are a bunch of people around. Mark shares two incidents.

1. The first is the calling of Matthew, a hated tax collector, to be one of his Apostles.

2.The other is a meal at Matthew’s house attended by Matthew’s friends and associates.

 

The key to the story here is the statement of the Pharisees:

“Why does Jesus eat with sinners and tax collectors?”

 

1. Popularity is not an Issue

 

By this I mean that Jesus is not trying to create a popular movement that gains as many people as possible. It might look that way because the impact of His ministry is collecting many people. But, Jesus is also doing things that will not be popular at all, in fact, they are anti-popularity.

 

1. Tax collectors are hated
2. There are a few reasons for the low view of tax collectors in the New Testament era:

 

First: no one likes to pay money to the government, especially when the government is an oppressive regime like the Roman Empire of the 1st century. Those who collected the taxes for such a government bore the brunt of much public displeasure.

Second: the tax collectors in the Bible were Jews who were working for the hated Romans. These individuals were seen as turncoats, traitors to their own countrymen. Understand that the land they are living in is ruled by the Romans. This is not a reflection of God’s promise. The tax collectors are working against the promise of God for the people of God!

Third: it was common knowledge that the tax collectors cheated the people they collected from. The tax collector Zacchaeus, in his confession to the Lord, mentioned his past dishonesty (Luke 19:8).

Fourth: because of their skimming off the top, the tax collectors were well-to-do.

 

2. Jesus does not hate Matthew or others like Him.

 

1. Matthew is invited to lead and proclaim

 

Jesus’ Apostles will be sent out by Him to perform the same basic         ministry that He is doing. They are going to speak for Him!!

The next chapter of Mark:

¹³ Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴ He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach ¹⁵ and to have authority to drive out demons. ¹⁶ These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), ¹⁷ James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), ¹⁸ Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

 

Notice that they are invited to be with Him and so He might send them out to preach. He also gave them authority to drive out demons. (This commissioning here is similar to Matt 28. Jesus has all authority, so go and make disciples.)

 

 

1. Jesus is very popular

But Jesus is under no illusion that His popularity will last!

John 2:

²³ Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. ²⁴ But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. ²⁵ He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

 

John 6:

⁶⁰ On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

⁶¹ Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! ⁶³ The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. ⁶⁴ Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. ⁶⁵ He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

⁶⁶ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

Mark 4:

¹⁶ Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

 

1. Jesus Has Come for the Sinful

 

In Isaiah 53 Isaiah speaks about Jesus prophetically. He describes Jesus:

 

³ He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

 

        Despised, rejected and held in low esteem.

 

1. Who knows that they are sinful?

 

Luke 5 the calling of Simon Peter:

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. ² He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.”

 

 

 

Isaiah 40:

        9 You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high    mountain. You   who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift        it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of       Judah, “Here is your God!”
10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a         mighty arm. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense         accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his         arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those         that have young.

 

 

 

1. Jesus is fellowshipping with sinners

Why is this a problem?

 

There were many tax collectors and sinners who follow Jesus.

I would argue that there are only sinners that follow Jesus.

 

They need to change before they can have fellowship.

 

I Corinthians 15: ³³ Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good         character.”

 

 

1. Awareness of sinfulness is necessary

humility, repentance, excited for opportunity

 

Romans 2: You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. ² Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ³ So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? ⁴ Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

⁵ But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

 

Romans 3: ⁹ What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.

 

²¹ But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all

 

People who know their sin, who know that they are justly despised and rejected do not despise and reject Jesus! Or others for that matter!!

 

But those who see themselves as righteous often think meanly of others. And in this case, they are the ones who despise and reject Jesus. That was true in Jesus’ day, and it is true in our day as well.

 

 

III. The Righteous Must Submit to Jesus

 

In this case I use quotes around the word “righteous.” The religious leaders view themselves as righteous.

 

1. Because all must submit

All must submit to Christ. Because as Peter says in Acts 4:

¹¹ Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’

¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

 

When building a building, one must have the proper foundation. Jesus is the foundation for all that will be done in God’s kingdom!

 

 

The writer of Hebrews points out:

10 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. ² Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. ³ But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. ⁴ It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

 

1. Because none are righteous

Romans 3:      

⁹ What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. ¹⁰ As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

 

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. ²⁰ Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

 

Romans 1: ¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

 

Romans 3:

²¹ But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

 

1. Because only Jesus can make you righteous

 

II Corinthians 5:

 

 

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

 

Galatians 2: ²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”