Pastor Scott Andrews | March 10, 2024
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Luke 5:27-32
Let me start by asking you a question(s), to which we’ll come back later. What kind of person walks into our church that makes you think, “He would be a good addition to our church family. She would make a good Christian”? I suppose I could ask it this way, “What kind of person makes a good Christian, anyway?” Good? Clean? Respectable? Acceptable?
As many of you know, from the earliest days of church history, the church began venerating certain people, especially martyrs, as being more holy than others. They were special and came to be canonized by the church, which means they attained sainthood. Matthew was one of them – St. Matthew. You might know Matthew became the patron saint of tax collectors and bankers.
What picture comes to mind when you think of St. Matthew? You could turn to the book the bears his name, and some have it titled, the Gospel According to St. Matthew. Go to any number of impressive cathedrals throughout Europe. There are mosaics and paintings and stained glass everywhere. Lots of images of the apostles, including St. Matthew. You can see the picture in your mind, right? There he is standing, hands folded, eyes lifted heavenward, looking pious. The picture is complete with robes and, that’s right, a halo – he is, after all, St. Matthew.
But who is Matthew? I have to say – I think he would be the first to throw a rock through the stained-glass window bearing his image. St. Matthew? Who was he? He’s introduced to us in our text this morning, found in Luke 5.
Let me remind you where we are in this book. Luke’s purpose was to present Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God – to give us confidence that our faith in Him is well-placed. Having entered His ministry post baptism and satanic temptation, Jesus began teaching and doing miracles – all designed to prove who He was. He was teaching and doing things with authority – last week, even divine authority. His teaching was unlike the scribes – His was with power. His miracles, incredible – He began by declaring war on the forces of evil – one day driving out a demon right there in a synagogue in Capernaum – His first miracle in this book.
Then, at lunch presumably on that same Sabbath, He went to Peter’s home where He healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a high fever. Which caused people to bring the sick to Him, and He healed them of various diseases – in fact, it appears He healed all of them.
Which brought us to our current chapter, Luke 5. Don’t miss – it started with Him calling Peter and Andrew, James and John – fishermen – to follow Him – to be His disciples. Not normally who you’d call to be followers if you were a rabbi. Not religious people, but okay. From there, He healed an untouchable, an outcast, a man with the dreaded disease of leprosy. Unbelievably, He touched the man and rather than Jesus becoming unclean, the man became clean. Which hinted at what He came to do.
From there, last week we saw the next miracle, where Jesus did something amazing – something that caused the religious leaders to gasp, and the people to proclaim, we’ve seen remarkable things today. Yes, He healed a paralytic – the man stood up right there in front of everyone. But more, Jesus forgave this man his sins. The religious leaders were aghast – this is blasphemy, no one can forgive sins but God. And they were right on one count, and wrong on another. Yes, it’s true only God can forgive sins – but this was not blasphemy, because Jesus was God – He had the authority to forgive sins. Which means, our faith in Him is well-placed.
Through these miracles, Jesus is teaching some specific truths. Probably the two most outstanding have been these: first, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He does things only God can do. He’s demonstrated His divine power by healing people of every disease, driving out demons, ultimately, forgiving sin. In all these miracles, Jesus dealt with the effects of sin –like disease, demons and death. All points to His ability to deal with sin itself. Jesus has the power to say the words, “Your sins are forgiven.”
But a second, very important message is this: Jesus was building a kingdom of people you would never pick. He doesn’t fill it with religious people – righteous people – He fills it with broken people – like demon-possessed and lepers and paralytics and this morning – tax collectors and sinners. You see, His message of the kingdom does not belong to self-righteous, self-sufficient, arrogant, religious scribes and Pharisees. In the next chapter, we will look at the Sermon on the Plain where Jesus will say the kingdom belongs to poor in spirit, broken, mourning, hungry, thirsty people. It belongs to people who know they’re sinners, who know they need a Savior. It belongs to people who know Jesus is their only hope. So, we’ve seen Jesus begins to heal and call the marginalized of society – because they’re the ones who come.
If you came to Jesus any other way, then you missed it. If you came to Jesus because it was the family thing to do, the cultural thing to do, the cool thing to do, you missed it. If you came because you were essentially a good person, the kind of person who would make a good Christian, and you thought Jesus would be lucky to have you on His team, you missed it. Jesus will only have the broken – the spiritually destitute – forgiven sinners in His Kingdom. If you came any other way than, Jesus, I’m broken, and You are my only hope, you missed it.
Last week I told you we’ve begun that part of this gospel where Jesus does something, and the religious don’t like it. So, this morning, we’re going to find Jesus calling broken sinners into His kingdom and guess what? The religious won’t like it. I believe we have in these verses today the very heart of the gospel – the truth nearest to God’s heart – that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. Jesus came to save people who are sick and know they’re sick; people who are sinners and know they’re sinners. So read the text with me, Luke 5:27-32.
If the crowds were following Jesus that day, when He called Matthew, they would have been shocked. Jesus, do You know this guy – who he is, what he does? Well, let’s outline the text:
- First, we’re going to meet St. Matthew – and find that he’s not.
- Second, we’re going to go to Matthew’s Party.
- Then, we’re going to look at the Response of the Scribes and Pharisees to the party – and that’ll be a real shocker.
- And last, we’re going to look at Jesus’ Response to the Pharisees. And it will answer the question, what kind of person makes a good Christian, anyway?
Let’s begin by meeting Levi. Who was he? Matthew’s gospel tell us his name was also Matthew, and he was the son of Alphaeus. We see here he was sitting in the tax booth. So, Levi or St. Matthew was a tax collector. Now, immediately, you may think – well, as much as I don’t like paying taxes, IRS agents aren’t that bad. I don’t hate ‘em – if I lived next to one, I’d probably be nice to him – maybe – don’t want to be audited.
Well, feelings about tax collectors in Matthew’s day were a thousand times worse, and for good reason. During this time, Palestine had been under the oppressive rule of Rome for almost a hundred years. And one of the worst parts of Roman oppression was their system of taxation. It was methodical, it was relentless, it was ruthless.
This is how it went. Roman senators and other high-ranking officials would buy from the central Roman government at public auction the right to collect taxes in a given region at a fixed rate for five years. It was like having a franchise to tax. Those who held these taxing rights were called publicani – from which we get our word, publicans. The publicani would hire others, usually citizens of the country being taxed, to do the actual collection of the money. So, if you had the franchise for tax collection in Palestine, you’d hire a Jew to do it. Now, this is important – why would you pay for a tax franchise? Because whatever the publicani collected above the fixed amount, was his to keep. Making the system of taxation open to robbery and extortion.
Now, these hired tax collectors had the same arrangement with the publicani as the publicani had with Rome – whatever they managed to collect above the amount demanded by their bosses, they pocketed. Are you getting the snowball effect here? Both the publicani and the tax-gatherers obviously had a strong motivation to collect as much tax as possible – they extorted the people, knowing they were backed by the full power of Rome.
Now, there were two categories of tax collectors hired by the publicani. First, there were the gabbai. The gabbai collected general taxes, like property and income taxes. They were just like our property and incomes taxes – don’t like ‘em, but everybody pays them. There was also a poll or registration tax that was paid by every boy over 14, and every girl over 12.
But the second kind of tax collector was the mokhes. They collected a wide variety of taxes – sales taxes, import taxes, toll taxes, boat docking fees, business licenses – things like that. They had almost unlimited authority – they could tax anything they wanted. They were allowed to stop you, go through your packages, and tax anything of value. When you came off the Sea of Galilee, they could tax the boat, the fish, and the dock you used. If you were traveling, they could tax your donkey, any slaves you might have, and all your goods. They were not very well liked. They were always in contact with people, who understandably hated them. Guess which one Matthew was? He was sitting in the tax collector’s booth – he was the mokhes – he was lower than the gum on the bottom of your shoe. He was despised. Get that – he taxed the Jews for the hated Roman oppressors, and extorted and robbed the people along the way.
As a result, like his fellow tax collectors, Matthew was barred from the synagogue. He was forbidden to have any religious or even social contact with fellow Jews. He was ranked with unclean animals, which a devout Jew wouldn’t touch. He was in the class of pigs. You see, because of his position, he had to deal with dirty Gentiles. And, because he was seen as a traitor, a liar, and a cheat, he wasn’t even allowed to give testimony in a court of law. He was an extortioner, a traitor, he was greedy, unclean. St. Matthew was a weasel. He was ranked with the lowest of human society – with sinners, prostitutes, and Gentiles. He was completely ostracized by his own countrymen, and rightly so.
And to this man, this slug of society, this dirty-rotten, low-life sinner, Jesus said, “Follow Me.” The people would have been shocked. Now, He’d said the same thing to Peter and Andrew, James and John. And Matthew became not only one of His followers, but one of the Twelve. And here we are, 2000 years later, reading, studying, learning and being encouraged by his story. The first book in your New Testament was written by him and carries his name. And you say wow, that’s incredible – he was awful. That’s right. Because you see, this is undeserved grace. Do we somehow think we deserve grace? What kind of person makes a good Christian, anyway?
Why did Matthew leave everything, right there in the tax collector’s booth, and follow Jesus? I have a theory. You see, Matthew was from Capernaum. He had been there the entire time Jesus was doing the miracles and teaching. He’d heard about Peter’s mother-in-law. He’d heard about everyone else He healed. He’d heard about the paralytic – and the unbelievable claim – Jesus could forgive sin. It’s even possible Matthew had heard some of the teaching. But, he was a tax collector. Even though the message of repentance and forgiveness sounded good, certainly it didn’t apply to him. St. Matthew? Hardly. He didn’t deserve the time of day.
And Jesus actually looked at him and said – follow Me. I can see Matthew looking around, looking over his shoulder – what, you mean me? Yeah, Matthew – you – follow Me. And he couldn’t get out of the booth fast enough. When forgiveness was offered, he ran for it. Luke tells us he left everything to follow Jesus. Don’t see him gathering up the day’s profits, stuffing them in his robe as he ran out the door. He left it all. And once he left his post, he left it for good – there would be no turning back. The fishermen – they could return to a life of fishing. When Matthew left, he left it all, for good.
But that was okay. You see, sinners who know they’re sinners are quick to respond to the call. They know they’re unclean – they know they’re dirty. They know they need forgiveness. Jesus was willing to accept when others were quick to reject. In fact, I would say it like this – Jesus is quick to receive people many churches would frown upon if they came in the back doors. Jesus is constantly in the business of calling into His kingdom people we would never pick. They aren’t clean, they aren’t respectable. And that kind of person responds – you see, people who are most acutely aware of their need will respond most quickly. The fact is, you must be aware of your need before you’ll ever seek the solution – Matthew was a sinner, all of society kept it before him. But Jesus said – you meet the requirements of My kingdom – you would never be the subject of stained glass – Follow Me.
Maybe that’s you this morning – you know your life, and you know your sin. And you think yourself too bad to be a follower of Jesus. I’ve got good news – you’re exactly the kind of person Jesus is looking for to fill His kingdom. He’s looking for sinners to forgive.
Which brings us to our second point – Matthew’s party. Matthew had found grace. He’d found forgiveness. He was clean for the first time in his life. And he threw a big party – he wanted everyone to know what he’d found – or what found him. That’s what rescued people do. So, he invited all his friends. What kind of friends do sinners have? Other sinners. The place was full of tax collectors and your general run of the mill pagans – sinners – quite possibly robbers, drunks, prostitutes, maybe Gentiles – the irreligious and ungodly riff raff of the area. One thing of which we can be sure, there were no religious people there. The word sinner at this time was a technical term to refer to anyone who didn’t follow the law of Moses or the tradition of the elders. These were just sinners like Matthew who knew they needed a Savior, and they were there to meet Him. Can you imagine what kind of party it was? No doubt lots of laughing and crying at the same time. Can it possibly be true? Can we possibly know what it means to find forgiveness?
Let me ask you a question. When’s the last time you found yourself in a room full of sinners? Studies show it takes the average new Christian about 18 months before he has no non-Christian friends. It takes that long for us to separate from those dirty pagans, and immerse ourselves in the Christian sub-culture, and become so religious that we never have to rub shoulders with unbelievers. You would never find most Christians at a party with tax collectors and sinners. After all, we might get contaminated.
It was probably because of parties like this Jesus gained the reputation of being a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Could that be said of you? I believe parties like this is exactly where we’d find Jesus. Because, He went to where sinners were – He kept Himself from clean, self-righteous people who would never realize they need a Savior. I want to be clear – Jesus wasn’t a glutton – He wasn’t a drunk. He wasn’t in fact a sinner, but He went to where sinners were, because sinners know they need a savior.
Which brings us to our third point – the Response of the Pharisees and their Scribes to the Party. Surprise, verse 30, “The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling – stop right there – it’s the only time this word is used in the NT, but in the Septuagint – the Greek translation of the OT – it was used to speak of the people of Israel in the wilderness grumbling against Moses – ultimately God. Well, when they saw this, they grumbled and said to His disciples, ‘Why do you [other gospels, you and Him] eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
That wasn’t a question, by the way – it was an indictment. As we’re seeing, the religious oppose the work of God. The Pharisees weren’t inside the house – you’d never find them there. They were outside looking in. They were separated from sinners, and therefore separated from Jesus, condemning everything going on. That’s what self-righteous people do. They condemn others – to make them look better in the process.
These were the guys who were thankful they weren’t like other sinners [Luke 18]. These were the guys who kept all the rules and thought they were doing it right. The fact is, these guys were resentful Jesus never showed them such attention. If He really were a man of God, certainly He would throw us a party and commend us for our religious piety. They were expecting a Messiah who would crush the sinful and praise the righteous – they had little place for one who accepted and transformed the sinner and dismissed the righteous as hypocrites.
Even though it was more of an accusation than a question, Jesus answered their question. And He did it in two ways – which are absolutely vital we catch. First, He answered it with a physical analogy. He said, “It’s not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.” Think about it – how much sense would it make for a doctor to go through years of medical school and residency, which I hear is a breeze, and never spend time with sick people? Never go to the hospital? That doesn’t even make sense. What kind of doctor would spend all his time with healthy people, and refuse to associate with sick people? Sick people need doctors. People who are well don’t need them, except maybe for a good round of golf.
Too many churches across this country are for clean, shiny people. People who have it all together, and who just add Jesus to their already good lives. And sinners feel completely out of place, there. Jesus is saying, I want My church to be a hospital – where spiritually sick people can come to find grace and healing and forgiveness. Because that’s what we’re to be – spiritual doctors who, having received grace, dispense grace, for free. The church doesn’t need to be a place that condemns sinners – we need a place that accepts – more, seeks out sinners. Now, we don’t affirm their sin – but we accept them and share the good news with them – to see their lives transformed, to see them delivered from their sin. Just like we were.
In Matthew’s gospel – remember – he wrote it, so he would know what Jesus said – he records Jesus said, I desire compassion, not sacrifice. God wants us to show compassion to sinners. In fact, how we treat sinners is evidence that we have received grace. We can spend hours here every Sunday singing wonderful songs, worshipping God. We can spend hours praying together and talking about the wonderful truths of God’s word. But if we don’t love sinners – if we don’t have compassion for them – we are wasting our time.
The second way Jesus answered the question is the very core of the gospel – the very central truth of His first advent: “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” In other words, Jesus was saying to the Pharisees, you need to understand something – I didn’t come to call you, I came to call them. Now, it’s important we understand, Jesus is not saying there are two kinds of people on earth – righteous and sinners – those who need saving, and those who don’t. No – the book of Romans makes it clear there are none righteous – not one. Rather, Jesus is saying, there are two kinds of people on earth – sinners who think they’re righteous, who think they don’t need Me, and sinners who know they’re sinners, and know they need a Savior. And they come in their brokenness, mourning over their sin, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. I came to save them.
Paul said it this way, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” It’s when we realize that truth, we understand the gospel, and can be rescued. The bottom line is this: the gospel of Jesus Christ is not for good people. It is for bad people who know they’re bad. People who know they’re broken and need fixing. People who are dead and know they need resurrection – life. People who know Jesus is their only hope. And they follow Him.
As we close this morning, there are perhaps three groups of people here. First, there are those who are saved. At some point in the past, you realized you were bad – you were a dirty rotten sinner, just like St. Matthew. And you came to Christ, by faith, seeking His forgiveness. You heard His call and followed Him. For you, this morning, my message is simple. You understand grace. Aren’t you glad? Aren’t you forever thankful? Have you gotten complacent in your gratitude? We are all Matthew.
A second group of people here may be modern-day Pharisees. You’ve never really thought yourself that bad. You’ve kind of depended on doing it right to make yourself acceptable to God. You’ve gone to church, you’ve crossed all the spiritual i’s and dotted all the religious t’s. And you feel pretty good about yourself. In fact, you feel pretty superior to others. You’re not nearly as bad as other people, and not nearly as bad as you could be. You think you’re pretty good. My message for you this morning is this. Jesus didn’t come to call the righteous – He came to call sinners. If you’re relying on your own goodness – you won’t make it. The gospel is not for you. It’s for people who realize their own sinfulness. When you realize you can’t do it on your own, that despite all your external acts of righteousness, you’re rotten to the core, the gospel then becomes your only hope.
And finally, a third group is this. Maybe you’re here this morning and you feel like Matthew. Not St. Matthew – tax collector Matthew. And you’re sitting in the sinner’s booth, feeling dirty and sinful and rotten. And you are. And you’re feeling beyond the reach of God’s grace. You aren’t. I have good news this morning. Would you hear the words of Jesus speaking to you right now – follow Me. You can be clean. You can be forgiven. God will give you a brand-new heart, if you ask Him to.
So, back to my original question. What kind of people make good Christians? Those who realize they’re sinners – and the only thing they bring to the table of salvation is their sin. You see, we have a tendency to look at people and think – they’re good folks. They’re well-respected, they’re moral, have good jobs, they could give, faithful – they’re just good. They could probably lead a small group. They’d make a good elder. They’d fit in our church. They just need a little Jesus. There is none righteous, no, not one.
Can I suggest that no one needs to add a little Jesus to their already good lives. They actually need to add all of Jesus to their miserable, sin-loving, rebellious lives. It’s only the sick who need a doctor, and sinners who need a Savior. That, my friends, is the gospel.