Greetings to you, friend, and welcome to In Search of the Lord’s Way, a Bible study program to learn how to become a Christian the Lord’s way and the Lord’s way to be ready to meet Him when He comes. Oh say! We are glad you have joined us today. May the Lord richly bless our study together.
God has richly blessed this ministry beyond our fondest dreams or expectations so that today we're reaching into more homes than at any time in our twenty-eight year history. We are sincerely glad you are with us today and we pray that you will find our study a blessing. Let us hear from you this week, will you? No, no, we’re not asking you to send us money, because you see, we are sponsored on this station by some of our friends here in this area. Oh, how they would like you to be with them in one of their meetings. They are your friends, too, all members of churches of Christ in the area served by this station. So, one of them may be your next-door neighbor, or your grocery man, or your school teacher or your physician.
Our address is In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org, and our toll-free telephone number, in case you would prefer to talk to one of us, is 1-800-321-8633. You might want to visit our website, too, where on it you’ll find a devotional thought for the day. And, well, that is at www.searchtv.org.
Being the Son of God and having knowledge of all things, Jesus knew His visit to this planet would be short. He came, not only to personally save people like you, but to establish a universal community of believers, who would recognize, enjoy reconciliation and communion with God, and a common fellowship with men of every race and color. He called it His kingdom or-- His church. Immediately upon entering His ministry, He began to look for some people with whom He could entrust leadership in carrying on the work that He had begun. He found Peter and Andrew and James and John. They were fishing; they were fishermen by profession. They weren't wealthy so that they could make large contributions to the needs of the effort. They weren't educated men or politically powerful so as to gain status or political recognition. They weren't religious men of prominence in the community or even community leaders. They were just men of character and integrity. And, as we've learned, these qualities are important to leadership.
But Jesus needed more than these four people. Well, you know He chose twelve such men whom He called apostles. Why He settled on twelve, I don't really know. But He gave them roles of leadership and responsibility and miraculous powers which He didn't promise or give to everyone who followed Him. The passage that we are studying today, the one we’ll read in a moment from Luke chapter 5, is the story of His call of Levi or Matthew to be one of the twelve apostles. Levi was a "publican." Well, Ken Helterbrand is going to lead us as we sing now; and then I’ll be back and we will continue this story.
We are reading this very interesting incident in the life of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, the fifth chapter, and we will begin reading at verse 27. “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. And 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. But their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against His disciples, saying, Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered and said to them, Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” And we read through verse 32. Now let’s go to God in prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, we are so thankful to You for the blessings of this passage that we have just read. And we are thankful that Jesus came as Your Son and Your sacrifice for our sins; not to call the righteous because that would have eliminated so many of us; but came to call sinners to repentance and that includes all of us. We are thankful, Father, in His name, Amen!
We are using the New King James Version in a lot of our messages on these programs. And if you read the old King James Bible very much, you know that there are frequent references to “publicans” in the stories of the life of Jesus. Who are they? Well, the New Testament, the King James Version calls them “tax collectors,” the new King James calls them tax collectors. But, more strictly the publicans of Jesus' day were probably customs officers representing the Roman government. Their very work made them unpopular. The person at the airport who removes everything from your baggage and shuffles through all of your possessions isn’t a very popular person these days, is he? But those “publicans” were resented even more than these people. And the dislike of paying taxes is nothing new to us either, is it? Well, in the New Testament period of history-- among the Jews especially, these people were particularly unpopular because they were the Jews' immediate contact with Rome.
The tax itself was considered an inherent religious wrong, as well as a civil imposition. And many people considered the payment of the tax sinful and an act of disloyalty to God. That's evidenced in the question that was asked Jesus about rendering to Caesar. To further complicate the matter, a Jew who had taken the position of a Roman Tax Collector was considered a renegade Jew and a traitor to Christ, or to God. The hatred was intensified even more when it was considered that the tax laws were so ambiguous that tax collectors could collect about any sum they wanted, and then pass enough on to the high authorities to satisfy them, and to keep a substantial amount of that for themselves. So, it isn't hard for us to understand why they were considered tyrants, renegades, extortioners. Well, they were despised for their dishonesty, and their extortion and their greed. The word "publican" was usually associated with either the word "sinners" or "harlots" or prostitutes-- to imply that they were the worst of the people.
Now, on that particular day Jesus came along by the customs house in Capernaum, which is called his own city in Matthew 9 and 1. (Though He grew up in Nazareth, He had moved over to Capernaum-- just up the hill a ways from the Sea of Galilee.) And sitting here at the place of customs, was Levi or Matthew going about his work, collecting customs. Jesus saw him there and invited him to come and join His company of disciples. "Follow me," He said.
Well, there was nothing that He could have done that would have been more clearly emphasized, that would have more clearly emphasized His compassion toward the rejected people of the world than He did on this occasion by calling Matthew. He took Levi and transformed this sinful, despised, renegade Jew into an apostle, an evangelist, a saint in His kingdom. There just had to be something genuine about this man, and Jesus must have been able to see it, because he immediately left all he had-- and all he was-- and followed Jesus. Well, he left his good job, to follow Christ. He would have a terrific transformation to make in his lifestyle, too. He would be forced to change some habits that had a long and strong hold on his life. But the Bible says, "He forsook all and rose up and followed him." It is likely Levi had to sacrifice more than any of the others to be one of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The scripture says that as soon as he was converted, he made a "great feast in his own house" and invited a great multitude of those publicans and other people to be his guests; and that was in honor of Jesus. (The other day I was in a restaurant and overheard a man making arrangements with the manager for a banquet at which he would host a minimum of 500 guests. Oh! When he picks up the tab for that, he'll be set back a few pesos, won’t he?) So was Levi or Matthew, which means he must have had money and that would have been hard to leave, wouldn't it? Money is a pretty important thing to a lot of people. The Bible says, "Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness” (1 Timothy 6, verses 9 to 11). Well, this was the choice Matthew had to make to be our Lord’s apostle.
He was not only a man of money; he must have been one of convictions. He wasn't ashamed of the new Master. He gave this great supper at his house and invited his old friends and fellow employees. He was eager to have his old friends meet this new Friend of his. Say, that's a good idea for disciples today, don’t you think? Jesus had reached down into the depths and lifted him up and out. Out of the wells of his experience from the depths of his heart he could joyfully and joyously sing, "Love lifted me." So can we, my friend, who have been saved by the same Savior.
Well, Jesus went to the supper. And, as you might expect, He was criticized for eating and drinking with sinners. You must know that the Pharisees were the largest and strictest denomination in the Jew's religion and they took great pride in that. They were the most righteous people in the world. And if you doubt that, you could ask any one of them and he would tell you quickly how they fasted and prayed and gave much alms to the people. Furthermore, they had no use for the publicans and sinners. And they reasoned that if Jesus were all He claimed to be, He wouldn't do so either. No, sir! Not on your life, would you catch a Pharisee at a place like that, that Jesus had gone. But Jesus knew their self righteous thoughts and He replied, "They that are in health have no need of a physician; but they that are sick. I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."
By this, Jesus explained and vindicated His behavior and defined His earthly mission. You see, a doctor enters the sick room, not because he delights in disease or rejoices in suffering, but because he has compassion on the suffering and he wants to relieve their pain. Well, even so, Jesus kept company with sinners and publicans, not because He approved of their sin and enjoyed socializing with the depraved, but because as the healer of souls, He was willing to go where He was needed and work where the ravages of sin were most severe! He came into the world to save sinners! Their conduct, their wicked speech and their evil ways distressed Him. Their sins pained Him greatly! But, He sought them out and He showed His understanding of their problems, and His willingness as well as His power to save them.
Prejudice is a terrible thing, friend. Matthew would not be accepted in many churches. He wouldn’t be acceptable to many professed Christians today. He represented the scum of the earth, as some would say. I learned a long time ago never to call anyone "trash." Some do, but they're the same people who reject the poor, the children, the social rejects, and the immoral. But Jesus could take this man from his lowly estate and make him an apostle, an evangelist! I'm glad. Because if Jesus were only taking the good, the educated, the socially elite, I would have been passed by and I would have been left out.
On the other hand, just as some modern churches would reject Levi, others would gladly receive him unrepentant of his sins and all of that, because of his money. You see money talks with a lot of people. But, please notice that Jesus didn't choose Levi because of his money, rather because he was the kind of person that he was. Christ is not nearly as interested in our social standing, or our wealth or our education, as He is our willingness to be molded by His teaching.
Finally, Jesus came to save sinners. Levi was a sinner and was well aware of it. Are there people in the world who don't need the spiritual remedy that Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, brings? Oh no! But not everybody’s ready to face up to the reality of that either. Levi was a sinner. “All have sinned.” You and I are sinners, my friend. And will sin keep us out of heaven? Oh, yes it will. That's the evil of sin; it separates from God (Isaiah 59:1 to 3). God is the source of life and we need to know it. We are all sinners. No, no, it isn't because we were born with the guilt of Adam's sin, no, not anything like that. It's because, “we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
But, Jesus came to save sinners. That's the way He described the purpose of His earthly ministry in Luke 19:11. And, Oh! Incidentally, He said it at the house of another publican named Zacchaeus. He said, “...the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” We often sing: “What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!” And that’s what the Bible says in Revelation 1:5. But when and how does the blood of Jesus wash away sin? It’s when the admitted sinner believes and is baptized. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that You sent Jesus, Your Son, into this world to save us and save sinners. And we are thankful that we had heard opportunity to hear the gospel and that we could obey it and we could follow in Jesus’ footsteps and be His servants. And we are thankful for all of Your love demonstrated in that way. In Jesus’ name we thank You and we pray You. Amen!
Well, Jesus was right, wasn't he? Most of us don't go to the doctor unless we are sick; and that is a good case for an annual check-up. But most of us don’t do it, do we now? When the pain gets bad enough though, we'll give in and go. When we get sick enough we'll go to the doctor or send for him. Likewise, the fellow who thinks he is doing alright without God probably won't be coming to the Savior. But, you will be coming to the Great Physician, won’t you? Oh, I hope you will! When you do that, as in the case of Matthew or Levi, He can not only “make you whole again,” He can and He will help you overcome your bad temper, your forgiveness, your alcoholism or drug addiction, or whatever it is that troubles your heart and your life.
The apostle Peter told the people on Pentecost Day, many of whom who had participated in the crucifixion of Christ, to "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, [or the forgiveness of your sins] and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." That is Acts chapter 2, verse 38. And verse 41 says, "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added to them about three thousand souls." And you could be added to the Lord, too, friend. Why not? You're not too good to need the Savior. And you are not too bad for Him to save you, or to be accepted among His disciples. If we can help you in any way, give us a call.
But there's still another thing: God can put the sinner's life in order and use him for His noble purpose. Levi became an apostle of Jesus Christ. He was blessed with the privilege and the blessing of writing one of the 27 books of the New Testament. He not only got to be one of the original twelve apostles, but there were only eight people who were inspired to write those books in the New Testament, and God had him write one of the four biographies of Jesus. Although Matthew left a lucrative job to come to work for Jesus, He didn't lose anything, friend. He got into something with real meaning. He made something of his life by that decision.
Well, if you would like a free audio cassette tape or a CD or a printed transcript of today's message titled Jesus Calls Sinners, please write us: In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. If you use e-mail, our address is searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, if you prefer, you may use our toll free telephone number to make your request. That number is 1-800-321-8633. Be sure to tell us now whether you want the CD, the cassette tape or the transcript. Give us a few days to fill your request because it is going to take us awhile to fill all that we receive.
We are presented here by churches of Christ in the area of this station. Any one of these churches would dearly love to have you worship with them. Why not resolve to do that at the very next opportunity you have. If you need help finding that congregation, where that congregation meets nearest you, then we would love to be that help to you. We help people like this all the time. But we are not going to send anybody by your house to get acquainted with you without your invitation. We are not here to harass people. We are not here to embarrass people in any way. We want to work with you to your own salvation so that we can learn the way of the Lord, and believe it, and then with a responsive heart you can obey it. And we hope you will do that. Please don’t neglect your salvation. “Today is the day of salvation,” the Bible says, “Now is the accepted time.” People who put off and put off going to the doctor, well, that is one thing. But when you put off going to the Great Physician for your salvation; well that is a more serious thing even than the physical illness. So we hope you will be responsive. We plan to be back next week. Hope you do, too. God bless you now. We love you.
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