PONDERING... Did Jesus Come For You? (Mark 2:13-17)

Did Jesus Come For You? (AM Sermon Notes)

GIST: Jesus calls and saves sinners.

SCRIPTURE: Mark 2:13-17

13 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. 15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Today, we’re going to wrap up our look at this grouping of four “controversy scenes” in chapter 2 of Mark. Each of these controversies really centers around people missing out on who Jesus is and why He came. Last week, we saw that Jesus came to meet our deepest need: forgiveness, salvation. This week, at the risk of  sounding redundant, we see who He came to forgive, or why it is we need forgiveness more than anything else. At its core, the message here is that Jesus calls and saves sinners. It’s a simple truth, and one I know we’ve addressed recently (and will probably address even more in weeks to come). Nonetheless, it’s a truth that should profoundly change our lives.

1. THE CALLED (Jesus Calls Sinners)

This section we’re in, is repeated in all three of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). So, it clearly left an impression, and seems to have happened in this order.

Recap: Man Forgiven. Let’s start by walking through the scene here. Last week, we saw Jesus back in Capernaum. He’s at a house, likely Peter’s, preaching the Word. Then suddenly, people start digging through the roof to lower down a paralytic, who Jesus proceeds to forgive of his sin, and then later heals as a sign of His power to forgive sin--that is, meet the real and deepest needs of our hearts.

The Sea and the Sinner. Now, Jesus leaves the house and goes beside the sea and continues to teach. The change in location is presumably so He can have more space to teach the people (Or maybe Peter’s family asked for another venue after having a hole dug in their roof ☺). While this is going on, we’re given a very brief description of a pretty momentous situation. He sees Levi, the tax collector, and calls him to become a disciple. Now, this Levi is never called Levi after this point. He’s known as Matthew, as in the disciple who wrote the gospel of Matthew (one of the earliest gospel accounts).

This might be a story you’ve heard many times before, but we really need to catch the gravity of this conversion account. Levi was a tax collector. John MacArthur does a great job breaking down the nuances of the tax system at this time, so I highly recommend looking into his sermon on this passage. Basically, the Roman Empire taxed...everything...like us. And the system was corrupt. So Jewish citizens could work for the Roman Empire as tax collectors, and make a very good living by taking more than what was really required and lining their own pockets. MacArthur likens it to a mafia-like enterprise. If you couldn’t pay, they would find ways to make you pay. These people were despised and, likely, feared, because of both their corruption and influence. And Levi would have been a face of this institution. He was a tax collector on ground level. See, you would have had the bigger bosses who kept their distance from the actual collecting, and then people like Levi who carried out their dirty work (to their own advantage, of course). An interesting point is that he was sitting in the tax booth which seems to have been by the sea, as that is where Jesus is walking at this time. So, it is very likely that he was a tax collector with whom the previously called disciples (Peter, Andrew, James and John...the fishermen) would have been intimately acquainted. Jesus breaks down social barriers.

It is important to see this because Levi wasn’t just a businessman who Jesus called to join His operation.  He was a corrupt sinner who extorted others for personal gain--and Jesus changed his life.

Supper with the Sick. And we see this life change immediately in the scene that becomes the source of controversy. Jesus eats with Levi. We know from Luke’s account that this is at Levi’s house. And it’s not just Levi and Jesus at this dinner party. The passage says there are many tax collectors and sinners along with Jesus and His disciples because many followed Him. Levi isn’t the only sinner who has been drawn to Jesus. Again, we have a packed house.

Now to eat with someone in this culture, and actually in many cultures still today, is a sign of intimacy. We still have a little of this hanging over in our culture today, but not as much. I know I shared this a few months ago, but I saw this more clearly when I lived in Belarus. Still today, mealtime is more about fellowship than food. It’s customary for Belarusians not to drink anything while they eat. They save that part for last. Really, there are two reasons for that. One has to do with a long-held superstition about digestion, but the other is so they’ll have an excuse to stretch out the meal longer. See, after everyone has eaten, they’ll bring out scorching hot tea to drink. Only, it’s too hot to drink immediately, so you sip, and you dip in cookies, and you...keep talking. It’s about the time together.

The same was true in Jesus’ time. See how the passage says they were reclining at table. This was the customary posture. You ate at tables low to the ground in almost a lying down position. You were relaxed and intimate. Really, this is a picture of heaven because we have sinners eating with the King! Remember that famous passage from Revelation 3:19-20?   19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (emphasis added). In this passage, Jesus tells them the result of opening the door (which is repenting and turning to Jesus) is eating with Him--wonderful, intimate communion with God.

And this is the source of the controversy. Jesus is associating with people the Pharisees deemed blatant lawbreakers...which, of course, brings us to our second point.

2. THE CONSEQUENCE (Jesus Saves Sinners)

So first we saw the call--Jesus calling sinners. Now, we see the consequence of that call. As is often the case, we’re given two reactions here. The right one is given less attention than the wrong because the Lord knows our hearts. Though I’m sure we’d all love to envision ourselves as those at the table with Jesus, if we’re honest, many times we’re more like the Pharisees looking in on the meeting in disgust.  

The Furious: There are a few points to make here. One, the Pharisee’s are stalking this dinner party, much like they stalked the teaching session at Peter’s house, and will continue to stalk throughout the gospel account. They aren’t interested in food, physical or spiritual. They want to see Jesus slip up, and they think they’ve got Him. Of course, they don’t actually confront Him about it yet, they go to His disciples instead.

Again, there is a sad irony here. They were looking for people to perfectly obey the law so that the Messiah would come. Like we talked about last Sunday night and will address again this evening, they had even made the law more complicated to ensure that the core laws were for sure followed. Yet, here they see Jesus, the Messiah, are they’re plotting to destroy Him because He’s not what they were looking for. They wanted to obey the law and be blessed with the Messiah they wanted. He came to save sinners who could not obey the law (all of us) because He is the Savior they needed.

Jesus knows what is in their hearts, and He responds by again stating His purpose for coming. They want to know why He is eating with sinners, and He tells them. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Now, what He’s doing here is speaking their language. They considered themselves clean, and those who broke their laws unclean..and the reason the Messiah had not yet come. He basically tells them, I came for the people who need Me. He’s not telling them, I came for sinners, not saints--so you’re good. Just like Paul expresses in Romans 3:10, there is none righteous, no not one. He’s telling them the Messiah is for people who need salvation like these people...and like you. He takes their self-righteousness and flips it on its head. They are just as sick and in need of a savior as these people who look more lost in their eyes (and only their eyes).

The Followers. So we have the furious, but we also see the followers. I love the brevity of Levi’s call. Jesus said follow me, and he did. There is no evidence of hesitation, but from this passage and all the accounts that follow, there is plenty of evidence of change. This is a very important point. When Jesus calls, He enables to believe! This is not a story about Levi getting his life together. This is a story about Jesus changing Levi’s life. And that’s how it works. We’ll hit this in the takeaways, but we have to remember this. People come to Jesus because He calls them. Ephesians 2:8-9: “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (emphasis added). We do not save ourselves. He saves us. It is a gracious gift.

TAKEAWAYS

Usually, my sermon titles are questions that I see answered in the passage (and hope I don’t get in the way of being answered by my preaching). Today’s question was: Did Jesus Come For You? The short answer: Yes.

1. Jesus came to call and save sinners
• This is sovereign grace and is impossible apart from God, but, as we said last week, it is why He came.
2. You are a sinner; He came for you; follow Him.
• Don’t be Self-Righteous. The Pharisees missed this because they thought they were good enough. They did all the right things, and were not near as outwardly “bad” as the corrupt world around them, but they were relying on themselves--and we’re 100% lost and heading to Hell. Growing up in the right family, even a good Christian family does not save you. We are all sinners needing the Savior.
• This is Love. It’s probably an indication of my own sinfulness that it took me this long to get to this point, but please please hear (read?) this. This. Is. Love. Like I said last week, you want to see the externals of your life fixed? Get your deepest need met--forgiveness. Want to know how to face your own failures and those of the people around you? Remember this truth: Jesus died for you because you’re a sinner. It was your sin He died to forgive. You are miraculously loved. Also, you know that person you can’t stand right now (Yeah, you all pictured someone…), Jesus loves them that deeply, too.
• The Saved will Follow. There is always a doubled-edged danger when preaching the gospel. I never want to preach easy believism, so people think as long as they profess to believe, nothing else matters; they can continue living in sin because God saved them; they’re good. That’s a lie. On the flipside, I don’t want to preach legalism, so people think they’ll never be saved until they start living a specific way and jumping through specific hoops. That’s also a lie. Jesus saves sinners who are 100% incapable of saving themselves. AND when that happens, they follow Him. Period. James tells us faith without works is dead, not because works somehow produce faith, but because if there is no change in your life there was never any real faith to begin with.  (James 2:14-26)
3. Follow His example here.
• Not of, but Sent into  (<--Here’s a good article on the restatement of this common phrase) In John 17:15-19, Jesus prays the following for His followers: “15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” We’re to be in the business of reaching the lost. This is not a license to go and live sinfully in the name of evangelism. But, you’re to be a witness to the lost world. We have to be about His work. Man, this becomes such a hot debate. Should Christians go into bars? Should the go to strip clubs? Should they go to wild parties? Should they watch television shows full of foul language and sexual content to make themselves more relatable? Here’s the deal. Being more sinful is not what makes you more effective as a witness. That destroys your witness. Jesus was sinless, and sinners were drawn to Him. He didn’t sin with them; He cared about them and went to them. He didn’t hide inside the house; he went out by the sea, where the people were.
4. Trust in His sovereignty.
• NO ONE is outside of His grasp. We know that in our heads. But do we actually believe it? I have had many conversations with people that basically go along these lines: “Yes, I know Jesus can save them, but they’ll never come to church.” I’ve been guilty of that same attitude. But it’s 100% wrong. We cannot at the same time believe that God is sovereign and the source of salvation and believe that there are people who cannot be saved. Yes, there are people who will not be saved. But we don’t know who those people are--and we’re living just like the Pharisees if we think we do. In fact, they believed that about Jesus. We cannot think for a second our judgement would be better.
• Salvation is His Work. The flip side of that coin? Don’t be afraid to share your faith because you doubt your ability to save people. That’s starting from the wrong premise. You don’t have the ability to save people---no human does. Be bold as you share your faith because He is the one who does the saving.