Latest / HBCWestminster / 4.19.20 Luke 5:27-39 Pastor Danny Gardner

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4.19.20 Luke 5:27-39 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  I must confess, church, that I come a little bit frustrated this morning. I'm not complaining. I'm just frustrated. Here's my problem. Our government, who I appreciate and love, and I really do, has been dismissing the church's inability to gather by saying things like, you'll just have to figure out how to do it online. You'll have to figure out how to do church online. And some churches across our country have even tested this by meeting anyway, and we will not.
• 0:28
  They've been reprimanded. Some of those churches have even been fined. Lawsuits are now being filed from churches against their government. I'm not saying that I agree with those churches, but I certainly understand their point. My frustration, I think, lies with the response of our leaders. It seems like they just don't get it. They've said that they aren't forbidding us from worshiping. And that is true because worship is individual. Worship cannot be forced.
• 1:00
  You can attend a church service and still not worship. That is possible, and I think probably some people do. Worship cannot also be stopped. You can, and I pray that you are worshiping in your homes and worshiping in your jobs. I pray that you are worshiping in your marriages, that you're worshiping in the morning and worshiping in the evening. Worship we know comes.
• 1:22
  From Romans chapter 12, it is a daily laying down of our lives for the glory of God. And Romans 12.1 says, Therefore, I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. And so worship cannot be stopped. We can worship online. But what our governors don't seem to understand is that worship and the church are two completely different things.
• 1:50
  This is why you can worship online, but you cannot have church online. There's no such thing because the church is corporate. It is by its definition a group, an assembly, a body. Even the word corporate has as its root the word corpse, a body. I've often said, and I will remind us of it this morning, that what we are about to do is not church.
• 2:20
  is worship through music and Bible study. And music and Bible study are vital to the growth and well-being of every believer. You must participate in those things in order to grow in your walk and relationship with Christ. But those two things, music and Bible study, are not the church because the church is people. The church is the 381 people of Highland Baptist. I didn't sign up.
• 2:47
  To be an internet pastor, I have no interest in being pastor dude perfect. Internet pastor is not who I am. Internet church is not who we are. Highland is its people. I want to know the people of Highland Baptist Church, and I want them to know me.
• 3:07
  I want our families to grow up together. I want to eat with you. I want to laugh with you and sing with you. I want to know every baby that's born. I want to know every grandbaby that's born. I want to rejoice with you. I want to mourn with you. And so don't forget, beloved church, that what we are doing right now, which I'm thankful for and which the Lord is using, what we are doing right now, however, is temporary. We will meet again.
• 3:34
  Our church will assemble again. We will meet together and worship together with the body of Christ again, and we pray sooner than later. And so let's receive what the Lord has provided online this morning with gladness, but let our hearts continue to stir for the day when we can see each other again. Amen? Amen. Well, I'm in Luke chapter 5, and now that the Easter season has concluded, we're back to our study now in the Gospel of Luke.
• 4:04
  I'm in Luke chapter 5. Our text this morning is verses 27 to 39, and I would ask if you're able to stand in honor of God's Word that you do that now. I'm going to read 27 to 39, then we'll pray and begin, and it says, 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.
• 4:32
  And there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at 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 a physician, but those who are sick. I've not come to call the righteous, but 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.
• 5:02
  And Jesus said to them, Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. 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 will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.
• 5:30
  But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good. And let me pray. Lord, we ask humbly that you bless the preaching of your word today. We are privileged, Father, to have been saved by the blood of your Son, to be called by your name, and to be indwelt by your Spirit. We are privileged to be commissioned to carry your gospel to the ends of the earth.
• 6:02
  And Lord, we ask that you give us courage when we fear and confidence when we lack it. Give us, Lord, the conviction to live like your son. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, thank you. You can be seated. Well, church, we're five weeks in. Five weeks into a quarantine. Five weeks into a stay-at-home order. How are your marriages? I love my wife.
• 6:36
  I love being married to her. I can't imagine not being married to her. We are absolutely committed to each other, but quarantines do funny things. Hallie recently showed me a funny meme that said, my husband and I have started playing this game. It's called, why are you doing it that way? The meme concludes with, nobody ever wins.
• 7:00
  When Hallie and I were dating, I was willing to do almost anything to win her approval, almost anything to garner her attention. Whenever I knew I was going to see her, I made sure that my shirt was pressed and my teeth were brushed and that I smelled nice. If we were going out for an evening, I washed my car. If she was coming over to my apartment, I made sure that it was clean. But now we are 21 years into our marriage and we are five weeks into the quarantine.
• 7:28
  I'm almost embarrassed to confess what she's seen me wearing this month. There are times she sees me wearing the same clothes many days in a row, having gone many days, in fact, without shaving or showering. She has seen me wearing a dress shirt on top with sweatpants on the bottom so that I can attend a meeting online. It would be easy for me to say, you know, I've had to give up so much to be married. Imagine the cost.
• 7:57
  The cost of marriage is so great. But church, I know the truth. Imagine what I've gained being married to Hallie. The cost is nothing when I compare it to the reward. The New Testament describes many times our relationship to Jesus as a marriage. More than once, the church is described as the bride of Christ. In fact, in our passage this morning, Christ is pictured as a groom.
• 8:30
  And how often do you consider that Jesus did not just come to save you? He actually came to marry you, which means that he wants to be with you. He loves you. He chose you. When we imagine our relationship with the Lord, I think we mistakenly imagine us chasing after him, like chasing after this kind of mildly aloof, savior, despondent.
• 8:57
  In his responses toward us, we feel guilt and shame coming into the presence of God over our lack of effort in trying to win his approval. But church, that is far from the truth. We aren't just saved by Christ. We're married to him. He wants to be with us. And it is true that just as in our earthly marriages, there is a cost, but that cost is nothing compared to the reward.
• 9:25
  So also in our marriage to Christ, we must deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow him. But don't mistakenly think that Christ is aloof or despondent. It's very much the opposite. Christ came to seek. He came to save. He came to marry his bride and church. Don't miss this in our passage. The reward that comes along with marriage to Christ is great. It far outweighs the cost.
• 9:54
  Our text this morning takes place immediately following the healing of the paralytic from verse 26. Just one verse up, we have seen extraordinary things today. Christ had gone into a house. It was crowded. You remember these friends of this paralyzed man brought their friend up onto the roof. They couldn't get to Jesus, so they brought him up on the roof and digging through the roof, lowered the paralyzed man in front of Jesus. Jesus forgave his sins and then healed him.
• 10:22
  One verse later, he comes out of the house and comes across this tax collector, Levi. In our text this morning, Christ makes what has become a very famous purpose statement. I've not come to save the righteous, but sinners. Christ chose to marry, not to marry, the religious elite. He didn't choose to marry the goody two-shoes. He chose not to marry the people who had their lives put together.
• 10:53
  the lowly, and the castoffs. He chose those who were willing to be honest about their own spiritual condition. In our text this morning, we see two very different responses to Christ's marriage proposal. Levi, the sinner, repented and followed Christ. But the self-righteous Pharisees hardened their hearts and refused his proposal. And so let's look at our text. We'll go through it a verse at a time.
• 11:21
  Beginning in verse 27, I've called this just first, the call of the sinner. And look at verse 27. After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. Now, tax collectors were despised in ancient Israel. Throughout the New Testament, tax collectors were even equated with the worst of sinners. They were the worst people on the planet.
• 11:46
  The fact that Jesus would not only save a tax collector, but then make this tax collector an apostle would have been unthinkable. This would have been inexcusable to the Pharisees. Why? The reason is because the taxes being levied were not for their own country, but in support of Rome.
• 12:10
  Imagine this, church. Now, April 15th has recently come and gone, and it is difficult to cut those checks in order to square with the federal and state government. It's hard to pay taxes. But imagine if the checks that we cut, our taxes, weren't even going to our government. What if our tax money was going overseas?
• 12:32
  Now, you can insert your funny tax comment here, your snarky tax comment about our taxes going overseas. This is a good place for that. But here's how it worked. The Roman government expected certain amounts of money based on the region in which you lived, which was based on the last census taken. Herod Antipas, who was the king over Galilee at the time of Christ,
• 12:54
  would be expected to pay a certain amount to the Romans for his region every year. You can govern that region, but you owe us money, a certain amount based on that census. In order to collect that tax from his citizens, what Herod Antipas decided to do was to sell tax booth franchises to the highest bidder.
• 13:17
  And so he took his region and divided it up and appointed tax booths that would collect the tax. And he would sell those booths to the highest bidder, like a franchise. That franchisee would be authorized to collect income tax, property tax, land tax, travel tax, all kinds of different taxes. Anything beyond what they were required to collect, they were permitted to keep.
• 13:44
  So imagine that. They would actually overtax the citizens in their little franchise area, overtax them, give what was required to Antipas, who would give it to Rome, but then anything extra they collected from authority of the Roman government, they got to keep. Now, we in America would call that organized crime. You think of like a Roman-backed ancient Jewish mafia. That's kind of what it was like.
• 14:11
  With that understanding, it makes sense why a man like Levi would have been so despised. Not only was he over collecting taxes and becoming rich off of it, but the money he collected was for Rome. It actually paid for Rome to oppress the Jewish people. This was a hated man, a hated man. And not only that, here's kind of an aside, church. His tax booth was actually very close to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, which means that...
• 14:40
  the majority of the people that he collected taxes from would have been fishermen. Fishermen. So he's extorting money from fishermen. He's called to be an apostle of Jesus. Many of the other apostles of whom were fishermen. Imagine this, only in the church. There are so many times that I think only in the church can God reconcile certain types of people. Only in the church is racial reconciliation real.
• 15:08
  Is it tangible? Has Christ really honestly broken down that dividing wall of hostility? Only in the church are older generations and younger generations really honestly reconciled. Only in the church are husbands and wives. Can husbands and wives find true success? Only in the church can a tax collector and fisherman become friends. It's amazing the grace of God in the way that he calls different people.
• 15:37
  vastly different people who have nothing in common and who would not normally fellowship together only in the church. And by the grace of God, can this tax collector be saved and become friends with, loyal to the fishermen that he was extorting money from. That's first the call of the sinner, but notice the cost to the sinner. He continues in verse 28. It says, and leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And the change.
• 16:05
  And Levi's life was miraculous. It was instantaneous. He had no doubt heard of Jesus before, since Christ had made Capernaum, which was like a Sea of Galilee town, one of his headquarters. But this tough exterior tax collector, this well-connected mafia man, is never recorded as having said a single word. He simply stopped what he was doing and left.
• 16:33
  to follow Jesus and consider what he left. He left his franchise. He'd already paid for it, meaning that the taxes that were due to Antipas, and by extension then due to Rome, he had already paid out of his own pocket. He had bought that franchise booth by paying the taxes that were owed for it. He'd not yet made up all of that money.
• 16:59
  What we see in our text is one man, Levi, paying out of his own pocket the taxes due for his entire region in order to follow Christ. And it says he never casts a second glance. In fact, the verbiage here saying he left everything, rose and followed him. That Greek verbiage suggests that Levi was making a cognizant, decisive break with his past. He looked behind him and forsook it for what laid.
• 17:29
  ahead of him. In front of us in verse 28 is Levi becoming a new man. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, the old has passed away and the new has come. And Levi in our text in verse 28 is made new. He would have new desires and new priorities and a new heart and a new mind. And this newness of life is expressed in Levi's generosity.
• 17:58
  In the hosting of a dinner honoring Christ, Levi wanted to introduce Christ to all of his friends. And look at verse 29, and Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. Not only did he leave behind his income source, but then he actually paid out of his own pocket to introduce all of his friends. What a great reminder this is for us, church.
• 18:25
  When our mission is new, when our faith is new, we meet it with enthusiasm, but often our enthusiasm wanes with time. And let us not stop being passionate about seeing lost people come to Christ. Let us not stop praying for our neighbors, our friends, our family who don't know the Lord. Let us not allow our spiritual lethargy to overcome our zeal to see the lost.
• 18:55
  saved. Well, notice third, the confrontation now with the self-righteous. And so he has called the sinner. The sinner has left everything. There was a cost and he's left everything to follow Christ. But now our attention shifts. There's now a different audience to the self-righteous, the self-righteous Pharisees. Unfortunately, as Levi is throwing this party, massive party for all of his friends, even additional tax collectors.
• 19:22
  a bunch of his Pharisaical neighbors show up. And look at verse 30. The Pharisees, so this table is gathered, this dinner is happening. It says, 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 a physician, but those who are sick, I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And church, we know that human beings are inherently religious.
• 19:53
  We were, as humans, created with an innate desire, a bent toward, and even a desire to worship. However, with the marring of sin came the desecration of the object of that worship. That innate desire to worship wasn't lost. We still want to worship. But the focus of that worship shifted from the only being worthy of it to those far below.
• 20:23
  Romans chapter 1 verses 21 to 23 describe it this way.
• 20:54
  And the response of Levi's Pharisaical neighbors reveals everything about the condition of their hearts. Rather than reveling in the joy of their neighbor, they castigate the Savior of their neighbor's soul. Claiming to be righteous, so they've become their own gods. They're declaring their own righteousness. Claiming to be righteous, they actually declare themselves to be devoid of grace. They actually declare themselves to be strangers.
• 21:22
  to righteousness. And Jesus' response to them has three parts. And you'll notice first, there is an undeniable analogy. He says, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. How could they argue with this statement? In their minds, tax collectors were the sickest of the sick. If he indeed had the power to heal, why would he not go to those who needed healing? The second part of his response is kind of a reprimand from Scripture. And actually,
• 21:54
  It's Matthew's parallel account, which includes Hosea 6 and verse 6. He actually includes in Matthew's account, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Go and learn what this means, he tells them. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And what a slap in the face. Jesus' statement, go and learn what this means, was well used by rabbis in the instruction of their ignorant students.
• 22:23
  It'd be like saying, listen up, dummy. You know nothing. The Lord desires mercy, and you who claim to have perfected the law should have mercy to spare, and yet you offer none. Therefore, because no mercy is being offered by you, no mercy will be offered to you on the day of judgment. A reprimand from Scripture.
• 22:50
  And his response concludes with an example of his own mercy when he says, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. These tax collectors, the very dregs of society, were exactly who Christ came to save. And church, if we would come to Christ, we must come with humility, admitting that we ourselves need him desperately. That is who we are. We are the tax collectors. We are owed nothing. We can make no demands.
• 23:23
  Perhaps the most heinous sin a Christian can commit is acting like we don't need his mercy. Fake Christianity, in fact, I believe is no Christianity at all. The very foundation of the church is the grace of God toward those who cannot save.
• 23:44
  themselves. And church, we must admit, if we would come to Christ, we must admit first and foremost that we cannot save ourselves. We must not be like the Pharisees in the passage, declaring our own self-righteousness, that we are good in and of ourselves, because we are not. None of us is good. None of us seeks after God. We have all of us together turned aside like sheep going astray. We need desperately his mercy.
• 24:15
  And this is why prejudice and anger and hatred and jealousy and discord and gossip and condescension have no place in the church. They just don't because the foundation of the church is the grace of God. It's a recognition that he saves and we don't. Everything good that we have has come down from God. And therefore, we haven't earned the right to participate in any of those things. Let's look finally. So you see this confrontation with the self-righteous, but let's look.
• 24:45
  at the conversation now with the self-righteous and what this will be done. He says in verse 33, they said to him, the disciples of John fast often and offer prayers. And so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them, can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast in those days. Now this last teaching from Christ involves two illustrations. The first,
• 25:13
  is fasting in a continuous effort to discredit our Lord. The Pharisees ask him about why his followers don't fast when theirs are so fastidious. They were not followers of John the Baptist. Don't get this wrong. They weren't respecters of him. They use him as an example because it fits their agenda. They weren't followers.
• 25:37
  In fact, some of these may have been the same Pharisees standing on Jordan's shore that day when John the Baptist cried out, you brood of vipers. The Pharisees' shame here knows no bounds. They would even invoke the name of the one whom they hated in order to bring an accusation of illegitimacy against Christ. Jesus answers very simply. You fast when you mourn. You don't fast when you celebrate. When we're celebrating,
• 26:08
  We eat, right? That's what we do. Festivals involve feasting. That's where the word comes from. And so when we celebrate, we eat. He says, there will be a day when the bridegroom is taken away. And on that day, my followers will mourn and fast. But until then, why would we fast? We have nothing to fast over. That's first. The second illustration, parable, is a little stranger. Verse 36, he also told them a parable. It has two parts, one cloth and one wineskins.
• 26:38
  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, as it ferments and ages, it will burst the skins and it will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed. New wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new for he says the old is good. Now this parable seems a little more random and confusing, but it's not actually hard to understand.
• 27:09
  The Lord's point was that the gospel that he was offering could not simply be patched onto the old Judaism. There were those who wanted Jesus simply to come under the old system. We want to keep the sacrifices. We want to keep the offerings. We want to keep the law, the temple, the veil, all of that. We want to keep all of that. And Jesus, you can just come and be a part of that. But that's not what he said was possible.
• 27:38
  What he was gossiping, the true gospel that he was offering would tear that system down. That veil would be torn in two because his teaching was at odds with theirs. They believed themselves to be self-righteous, but he came for sinners. They believed in a works salvation, but he offered grace. They were proud, but he called men to repentance. The church were five weeks into the quarantine.
• 28:12
  How are your marriages? We know that there is a cost to marriage, but the reward far outweighs the cost. And so also in our marriage to Christ, it is true that the cost is high. What Levi left behind was valuable, but the reward was so much greater. It is true that we can't simply sew on the Jesus patch, never having changed the way that we live. But church, consider this, and with this we'll close. What Christ offers.
• 28:43
  is so much better than what we forsake to follow him. Let me close in prayer. God, thank you for your word this morning. And God, I pray, I pray that we would be faithful not only to hear it, but also to do what it says. May we not be like the man who looks at himself in the mirror and then goes away and immediately forgets what we look like. Lord, we should count the cost in coming and following your son, denying ourselves.
• 29:12
  taking up our cross daily and following you. We should count that cost. It is expensive, but Lord, what you offer, being married to you, the reward is so much greater. God, we rejoice. We rejoice in our marriage to your son this morning. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.