Wednesday Night, May 6, 2020 PM

I pray that You would transform us by Your saving power, and that You would conform us to Your Son, Jesus Christ, who is in Your image, the image of the invisible God, and You have made us in Your image, and You make us anew in Christ.

So I pray that You would help us to get a clear view of Jesus Christ in Your Word tonight, that we would know who we are to be, how we are to pray, how we are to worship You, and I pray that You would sustain us this week as we study Your Word and read Your Word, intercede for one another, look after our needs, Father, help us to trust You in all things.

We ask that You would soon gather us back together again, and that we would make the most of our time together, encouraging one another, showing love to one another, glorifying You together with one voice, one heart, and one mind, that You are our one God and our one Savior.

Luke 5:27-32 and the Amazing Grace of Levi’s Call

We pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. Well, we're in Matthew chapter 5, verses 27 through 32, considering the call of Matthew or Levi, as he's called here in the text. And we started last week by looking at verse 27, and the amazing grace seen in the call of Levi.

Now, we begin, of course, with the call of Levi in verses 27 and 28, the complaint in verses 29 and 30, as the religious leaders complain about the way in which Jesus fraternizes with Matthew and other tax collectors, and then, of course, the clarification that comes in verses 31 and 32, as Jesus explains why He's there and what He's up to.

And as we have been doing, we continue to consider the application of the gospel of Luke, these various passages, the application of the truth of God to our prayer lives. How is it that the Word of God is to shape how we pray?

So, the amazing grace in verse 27 is followed up by the effectual grace that we see in verse 28, and we'll explore that in detail in a moment. First of all, let me read the Word for us, Luke 5, beginning in verse 27, I'll read through verse 32.

This is the Word of the Lord. After that, He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, follow Me. And he left everything behind and got up and began to follow Him.

And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house, and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with Him. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?

Jesus answered and said to them, it is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And this is the Word of the Lord.

Effectual Grace, Regeneration, and the New Birth

So amazing grace in verse 27 as we consider the wretched sinner of Levi as he is a tax collector ensnared in his sins, and we consider the wondrous Savior, Jesus Christ, who notices Levi in spite of a massive crowd, all the busyness of that afternoon in Capernaum, how He singles out this one tax collector and goes to Him with this gospel call of salvation.

He says, follow Me. And as we see what happens next, as we see the response in Matthew's life, as we consider what happens in verse 28, we're not really moving beyond amazing grace, we're just becoming more specific in what we're saying about the amazing grace of God, as the hymn says, and that called a wretch, that saved a wretch like me.

And in verse 28, we see effectual grace, meaning grace from God that makes an impact, grace from God that cannot fail to save. And we see this in the life of Levi and the life of Matthew. Matthew was a great sinner, but Christ was a greater Savior.

Not only does Jesus in calling Matthew, not only does He express the unmerited favor of God upon this single tax collector who hadn't a thread of hope that God should save him, but the call that Jesus gives is not just an outward general call which goes to all men, the spirit and the bride say, come.

But there's also here we see the internal saving drawing of God, bringing Levi to Christ, the internal effectual call. The amazing grace of verse 27 is proven effectual grace by what happens in verse 28.

And the pattern of what happens here for Levi in verse 28, this pattern is really the new birth. He is called by the Word of God, he is confronted with the Word of God in person, the call goes forth and then everything changes for Levi, that's called the new birth, it's called regeneration.

When Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again, He was telling him what happened, what needs to happen to you is what's happened to others such as Levi. And this new birth I think is expressed well in 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17, and many of you will know this by heart, therefore if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creature.

The old things have passed away, behold new things have come. Now listen to that again, therefore if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creature. The old things passed away, behold the new things have come.

The New King James Version renders the same verse as follows, therefore if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation, you hear that, He is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.

The word really is creation there, not just creature, it really does mean creation. Because Christ has been risen from the dead, the new creation you see has broken into the old, future glory has kicked down the door of the present, light shines in the darkness.

And all those who have been born again in Christ are new creatures, yes, but more vitally we are new creation, new creation. The old has passed away, all things are become new. The verb phrase have become new, what we have there in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, that indicates there's a past completed action with an ongoing result.

Something happens, something changed in our lives and now there's an ongoing result in what has occurred. That of course does not mean that anyone who is born again such as Levi has no more connections to his past or that we have no more sin in our lives or that we have somehow already been raised from the dead in glorification.

The vestiges of the old are still present, but we reckon ourselves as dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord as Romans 6 says. Our situation is not unlike that of the transition from the old to the new covenant.

Hebrews 8 .13 talks about that, the transition from the old to the new covenant was an interesting time between the resurrection and ascension of Christ and the work of the disciples, the apostles, and preaching the gospel all until such time as the temple was destroyed and the priesthood and the sacrifices were ended.

It was a kind of a strange time to be preaching and doing ministry. But Hebrews 8 .13 says, when He said a new covenant, He made the first obsolete. So when Christ was saying, this is my blood of the new covenant, what did He do with that?

Well, He made the first covenant obsolete and whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. So when the preacher to the Hebrews was writing this, the old had not yet disappeared, but it was ready to, I mean, because it was obsolete.

What was the point to continue on with these sacrifices, to continue on with this charade that went on in this place? It was obsolete, it was old, it was ready to disappear. And I think it's a good analogy for what it's like to be new creatures, new creations, ready to be raised from the dead, ready for what is next to come.

Even as the temple and the sacrifices, the Levitical priesthood and so on, even as all of those things were obsolete and would soon be swept away forever, in the same way, our old man, the old things about us are obsolete.

They are ended in truth and ready to disappear, and they shall disappear in our death and glorification. So with that in mind, let's consider Levi's testimony and how his following Jesus helps us inform our prayer life.

Verse says, verse 28, he left everything behind and he left everything behind and got up and began to follow Him. In three swift strokes, we are told of God's effectual grace in the life of Matthew. Six words in the Greek, just six words in the Greek, and I can get it down to seven in English.

And forsaking all, arising, he followed Him. That's as sure as I can get it, but that's the way it sounds in the Greek. It's very short, it's very concise. And forsaking all, arising, he followed Him.

Well, how does the old become obsolete for Matthew? In what way does the new birth cause the old things to pass away? Three phrases come to mind as I look at this verse, and they sound in my soul from that stirring hymn, true belief and true repentance, every grace that brings you nigh.

Without money, without money, come to Jesus Christ and buy. Good word for a tax collector. True repentance. We see true repentance in that Matthew left everything behind. And I know the text says the name Levi, I hope you don't mind me calling him Matthew rather than Levi.

That's how I first got to know him as Matthew. He's an old friend of mine. I spent about four and a half years preaching through his gospel. And so somehow when I read about his conversion story, I rejoice in his salvation even as I do in hearing other stories of grace, people that I know.

So I'm just going to call him Matthew for my sake. So what did Matthew give up in his repentance? Well, remember that he has leased the rights to collect tariffs and fees and tolls and taxes and customs from the masses that gather there in Capernaum to do business.

He had his booth. He probably had some publicans that he employed to help him collect all these taxes. He had his bags of money. And all of that he leaves behind. We remember the story of Peter, Andrew, James, and John and how they left their massive catch of fish, their boats, their nets, their father's businesses, and they left and they followed Jesus.

Well, Matthew leaves his tax collection. He got up from his seat. He removes himself from that place. These simple actions tell us of the effectual grace of repentance. There's nothing especially sinful about going fishing or making your living by fishing or even collecting taxes, you know, working for the IRS.

There's nothing especially sinful about that. But the point is these things can be done in sinful ways to be sure. And the point of Jesus calling Matthew to follow him is especially connected to Matthew's sinfulness.

That was the basis of the Pharisees' complaints. And indeed, it was the point of Jesus's clarification later on in this text. Matthew was sinning in the manner that he was collecting these taxes. And to continue on in that sin would be impossible if he was going to follow Christ.

And I think it's vitally important that we make note of this. We see that Matthew did not continue to identify as a tax collector, as a publican, as a sinner. He left that lifestyle, that course of action.

He left that social identity behind. Now, to have so invested one's life into this wicked livelihood would make it a real part of the self. I mean, Matthew's hand was ever grabbing for the fee. His foot was ever stepping in the way of the commerce.

His eye tracking the goods as they came and went. But repentance necessitated an end to all such matters. Jesus states in Matthew 18, 8 through 9, he says, If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you.

For it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.

I think any of us would find it very difficult indeed to live without one of our hands or one of our feet or one of our eyes. To even think about self-mutilation, to even think about ridding yourself of one part of your body is a staggering thought.

Bodily mutilation, however, is not Jesus' real point. This is hyperbole. This is an exaggeration with a point. His hyperbole actually hardly attains to the point he does make. All manner of people are willing to go through morbid bodily mutilation in order to pursue their course of sin.

No, his point is this, we are to sever from ourselves all sin, all wickedness, all evil, all perversion, all abominations in our repentance. And even if such lawlessness seems to emerge from our inner man as most consistent content from our soul, though such sinful desires may seem hardwired in our instincts, it should be severed.

The physical, emotional pain, the social shock, the social shock of living with only one eye or one hand or one foot, such is the pain which accompanies repenting of deeply intertwined sins. That's Jesus' point.

And Matthew's whole identity was wrapped up in being a tax collector. He left it all. How painful was this? And yet, how right did it seem to his born-again soul? He arose from the seat of his power, the seat of his wealth.

He repented of his sins. What is that? That's effectual grace. That is the power of God, true repentance. That is the power of God and true belief. Why did Matthew give up his booth, his money, his identity?

Well, he was no stoic engaging in sacrifice for sacrifice's sake. His true repentance was but one side of the coin. The saving grace of the new birth has two sides to that coin. Repentance, you see, means a change of mind.

There's an inner 180-degree shift. There's a turning away from and a turning towards. And so, obviously, Matthew was turning towards Christ in belief. He was believing Jesus Christ. He was believing the Messiah.

He was believing... How much did Matthew really even know about Jesus Christ? I don't know if you've ever seen The Voice of the Martyr's animation, Jesus, He Walked Among Us. It's a great movie. And there's a scene there where Matthew was present.

He actually snuck into the house and he was present there for the healing of the paralyzed man. And you just kind of wonder if he actually did see something from that day's powerful scene. And if he did, what would have struck him the most?

The fact that a lame man walked or that a sinner was forgiven of his sins. But here is Jesus right in front of him, the Son of Man, who both heals and forgives, and he says to Matthew, follow me. And Matthew believes.

Now, let's say Matthew was too busy to make it over to the house that day and the crowd was too big anyway. Even if all that had passed by him, the fame of Christ, we read in Luke 4 and in the beginning of Luke 5, the fame of Christ had soaked the Galilean countryside.

Jesus had already been teaching for some time in Capernaum. This wasn't his first time there. Folks were talking about Christ all over the district. The crowds were large and pressing, always searching him out.

Jesus had been persistently preaching in all the cities, preaching the kingdom of God. It was understood then, it's understood then that when Jesus Christ comes before Matthew and says, follow me, who Jesus Christ was and what it meant to follow him, this was clear to Matthew, and Matthew believes.

Matthew's forsaking of the old as obsolete comes in the wake of his belief in Christ. He's not simply walking away for a break. He's not simply putting up the out for lunch sign on his former way of life as he investigates the claims of this wonder worker until such time as his curiosity is satisfied.

No, no, this is effectual grace. This is true belief. This is true repentance. This is every grace that brings him nigh, that brings us nigh. It is a matter most establishing for our faith when we recognize and confess the glory of God alone in salvation.

And this was the case in Matthew's salvation. It is the case in ours as well, whereas John 1 .13 says, we are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. The new birth is not of blood.

The new birth is not of the will of the flesh. The new birth is not of the will of man. The new birth is of God. And that's good news. As we consider Matthew's case, him as this sinner intertwined in his sin, who hadn't a hope of God's forgiveness in his life, and yet here is Jesus Christ before him, and he calls him to follow him, and Matthew was saved.

We are to be reminded of what Matthew Henry says. There is no heart too hard for the spirit and grace of Christ to work upon, nor any difficulties in the way of a sinner's conversion insuperable to his power.

So we're not to look at a sinner that we know and say, well, he's too far gone, or she's too far gone. Look, Jesus Christ saved the likes of Matthew. He saved the likes of Saul of Tarsus. He certainly can save anybody that we are acquainted with.

What do we have here? We have a miracle of grace. Jesus Christ comes before this tax collector, Matthew, and he looks at him, he says, follow me. Matthew got up and followed him. See, that's a miracle.

The one who said to the lame man, rise, take up your bed and walk, the one who said to the dead man, Lazarus, come out, is the one who says to us, follow me. And so it is that the lame walk and the dead are raised to life, and the sheep hear the shepherd's voice and follow him.

Well, the old is ready to pass away in the new birth, the old is obsolete, ready to be left behind completely, and the new has come to stay. In the new birth, the new comes to stay. Jesus says to Matthew, follow me, and the text says that Matthew did.

Indeed, he followed him. Now, the tense of this verb, he began to follow him. Now, the tense of this verb indicates that Matthew began at once to follow him and that he kept on at it. So, that's the whole idea.

He got up and he began to follow him and he kept on following him. That is effectual grace. The old has passed away and the new things have come. In fact, when we are made alive in the resurrection life of Christ, everything is made new.

Nothing, nothing can be the same old, same old anymore. Matthew followed Christ not only in a literal sense in that he was putting one foot in front of another, following Jesus who was doing the same thing wherever Jesus led.

Not just in a literal sense, but also in a spiritual sense. Matthew became a disciple of Jesus Christ. Remember from our earlier study that when we talk about a disciple or someone who follows Jesus, there is no noun actually in the New Testament about followers of Christ.

It's all in the verbs. And that is clarifying that there is an active living relationship in this idea. It's just the action, not merely the concept. There's an active following of the living Lord Jesus.

And what we see here is Matthew coming into a living, active relationship with Jesus Christ. And for those of us who are alive now in Christ, what is our relationship? It is not to the merely humbled Lord Jesus who took on the form of a bond slave and came to suffer among us, but our relationship now is to the exalted, living Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God.

Our relationship is with his present Holy Spirit. Our following of the way is as true as Matthew's following of the way. We're following the way who is a person. We are following the word of God in the flesh.

We are following the word of God as a person. And we follow him into all of the blessings of God. This whole idea of following the way, following Christ, has its meaning deeply rooted throughout the scriptures.

A good example is to remember what God said to that second generation out of Egypt after he gave them the law the second time. Deuteronomy 5, 10 commandments are given. And then God speaks through Moses to this new generation who are about to enter the promised land.

And this is what he says in Deuteronomy 5, verses 32 through 33. He says, so you shall observe to do, so you shall observe to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you. And you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left.

You shall, here it is, you shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you that you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you will possess.

And so it is when the word arrives in the flesh as the talos of God's law, as the fulfilling end of God's law, and he says, follow me. What are we to think? What are we to think other than that by following the way himself, who is the way of God, he is the very word of God.

What are we to think other than that by following the way himself, we will indeed come into possession of all the blessings that God has promised. For as many as are the promises of God in Christ, they are yes.

It is Yeshua, it is Joshua who leads us, is it not, into the new creation. Well, how does this change the way that we pray? We think about the effectual grace here in the life of Matthew, how he got up, left everything, and followed Christ.

Well, we're reminded of the grace of the new birth. We're reminded of the promises, the descriptions that we are new creation. And so we ought to have new creation concerns. We ought to have new birth concerns in our prayer lives.

It is true, all things have become new. All things in our lives now pertain to Christ, who is raised the first fruits of the new creation. Everything in our lives pertains to Christ's good news, Christ's kingdom, Christ's reign.

That means our family affairs, how we do family, how we think of family. It means our financial affairs. That means our church commitments. It means our citizenship. It means the managing of our time and other resources.

Listen, all of that pertains to Christ now. That's what it means that all things are made new in Christ. Everything is different now if we are alive in Christ. And that should affect the way that we pray.

In our following of Christ, the old has been left behind. The new is what is at hand. And so we ought to be praying about all the various concerns in our lives in connection to the life we have in Christ.

As we look at Matthew's repentance, are we known as repenters? As we look at his repentance, as he got up and left everything behind and followed Jesus, how does that impact our prayer lives? Well, we are to be known as repenters.

This is what Christians in the Ukraine are known as. They're called repenters. It was a pejorative term, but they have taken it up and owned it. This is to distinguish themselves from the nominal Greek Orthodox there in the Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox in the Ukraine who aren't really born again, don't really know Jesus, but go through a lot of cultural customs.

In contrast to that, those who are born again live lives of repentance. We need that kind of distinguishing mark in our time today. So many will claim that they are saved, but they remain dead in their trespasses and in their sins.

They say that they're saved, but they're still enslaved to the devil, and they do his wickedness. I have to ask you a question. Is Christ such a poor savior that those whom he saves remain shot through with horrid abominations, given over to every manner of vice?

Is there no new life in the new birth? Is there no change in repentance? Is there no difference in between the old man and the new man? I think Paul would say, God forbid. True believers, you see, because of effectual grace, are like Levi.

Leave that old behind, get up and follow Jesus. There's a real change in their lives. True believers grow to hate sin. They loathe it. They make war against it. They eagerly fly the colors of Christ over new territory.

It is the devil who whispers in the ears of Iscariot that a nominal attachment is all that is needed. Just name Christ and you're fine. But will you toast Christ at the enemy's table? Will you name Christ's honor and slake your cravings with sin?

If you are no repenter, you are no Christian. The effectual grace of repentance makes a real difference. Make war against sin, then, in your prayers. Make war against sin on your knees. Seek grace upon grace from the throne from where Christ sits, the mercy seat, and repent in your prayers.

And I think as well, as we look at Matthew and how Christ came to him, and he is this great sinner, but Christ is the greater savior. And he comes to Matthew and calls him, and he does. He follows him.

And nobody would have expected it, and many people resented it. But there it is. Christ saved a great sinner. If we keep that in our minds, then it should impact the ways that we pray. It should impact the way that we pray for the lost.

I mean, it's not that we merely want to see them in heaven so that our emotional burdens are relieved. Oh, I would feel so terrible if this person whom I know and love and care for would die and go to hell.

And so I want them to go to heaven so I will not feel bad. That is, I guess it's a start in our prayers for the lost. But what do we want for them? Do we not want them to be alive in Christ, to be rescued out of the slavery to sin?

How can we be content to simply comfort ourselves with the thought that those who are enslaved to sin might somehow sneak their way into heaven? Don't we want to see them born again, following Christ?

We should pray that they will kiss the sun, that they do homage to the sun lest they perish in their way. We should pray that we would see sinners bow the knee to the King of Kings on high. When the goal is to teach obedience to the nations, according to the Great Commission, we should be praying that way about those who are lost.

Ask God to do his work in their lives, even as he did the work in Levi's life. Call upon the Holy Spirit. Ask him to blow upon the walking corpses and make dry bones live, to live by Christ, in Christ, and for Christ.

So these are the ways in which we see the impact on our prayer lives as we consider conversion, the new birth, and what happened to Matthew here in this chapter. Well, let's close with a word of prayer.

Father, I thank you so much for the time you've given us. I pray that we would make right application of your word to our prayer lives, that we would pray in response to the wonderful work of grace you have done in our lives, and pray the same for others.

We pray all these things, looking only to you, and pray these things in the name of your Son, with whom you are well pleased. Amen.