Wednesday Night, May 20, 2020 PM

Luke 5:27-32 and the Call of Levi

Provision of the new growth, the garden plants and the trees and hearing the birds sing your praises. Father, we thank you for thinking about all of these small details and providing them and bringing joy to our hearts as we give you thanks for the beauty in which we live.

We thank you for loving us for the sake of Jesus. We thank you for giving us to your son and giving your son to us and bestowing to us your Holy Spirit by whom we commune with you knowing that our prayers are lifted to your right hand to Christ by your Holy Spirit.

We thank you for hearing us and for loving us and for providing for us. We pray now that as we look at the gospel of Luke and consider what it means to follow Jesus that you would clarify those matters to our hearts and help us to know how to pray as those who follow Jesus.

We pray these things for his sake. Amen. Well, I invite you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 5 and we're going to be reading verses 27 through 32, Luke chapter 5 verses 27 through 32. And we're looking at a passage in which Jesus calls Matthew to follow him.

He's called Levi here in this portion of God's Word and other gospels. He's called Matthew, but he calls Levi to follow him. And we're considering what does that mean? What happened in that call that Jesus gave?

And what happened in Matthew's life because of that gracious call? We are considering the complaint that was made by the scribes and Pharisees concerning the company that Jesus kept by going over to Levi's house and spending time there with him and his friends who were tax collectors and sinners.

And we've come now to verses 31 and 32 where we're considering the clarification that Jesus gives as he answers the complaint made by the scribes and the Pharisees. All of these matters, the call in which we see the amazing and effectual grace of God, the complaint where we see the dinner that Matthew gave and the denouncement by the religious elite.

And here in the clarification, verses 31 and 32, where we consider Jesus's illustration that he offers the intervention that he makes in the lives of those around him. So we're considering all of these matters of what it looks like to follow Jesus.

We're also making direct application to our prayer lives. How do we take the Word of God, meditate on its meaning, and then make the adjustments in our prayer lives so that we're not just hearers of the Word, but also doers of the Word in the sense that we're praying that we take up the truths of God's Word and that we're praying in agreement with God's Word.

And that's going to be our focus again tonight. So I invite you to follow along as I read Luke chapter 5, verses 27 through 32. 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 them.

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. So the call in verses 27 and 28, complaint in verses 29 and 30. Now the clarification in verses 31 through 32, Jesus answers the complaint made against him and his disciples by the Pharisees and their scribes.

Prayer in Uncertainty and Clarity

Let me ask you, when are you most compelled to pray? When do you most feel the urgent need to pray? When matters are not clear, I have a most urgent need to pray. You're driving along in your car and mud splashes up and smears on your windshield while you're driving, what do you do?

You immediately slow down and you use your windshield wiper fluid and your windshield wipers and you clean it off. And when your family's safety is uncertain and your financial standing unsteady and your relationships and obligations unclear, do you not feel that urgent need to take the time and seek the Lord in prayer?

Uncertainty often drives us to pray. We want to be more sure, more certain to have a better understanding. Very often we go to the Lord in prayer when we are uncertain, when there's a lack of clarity.

And while uncertainty may drive us to prayer, uncertainty of our situation may drive us to prayer. Uncertainty of whom we address in our prayers must be completely driven out. We cannot eliminate all lack of clarity about our situations, but we must be absolutely clear on who hears our supplications.

We can be clear about that. And the more we know about the one to whom we pray, the more clarity we will have about the situations in which we live. Now there are three ways to pray that clarify matters.

Now Jesus is clarifying matters for the complainers. Pharisees and scribes are saying the same to his disciples, why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners? They're grumbling, they're making those noises in the back of their throats, they're drawing attention to something they believe is wrong.

And Jesus is clarifying the matter for them. And when we pray, there are three ways to pray which would clarify matters. And all of these ways would also clarify the situation for the scribes and Pharisees.

And these three ways of praying which clarify matters all have to do with a focus upon Jesus Christ. As a bird's eye view, as satellite pictures give us the lay of the land, so also does our focus upon the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.

What a vantage point is afforded us when we pray to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. From the foot of his throne, which is the highest throne of all thrones, we are given that perspective. All matters are placed in perspective when in the light of the sovereignty of Christ.

Secondly, to the faith or curing ghosts, that small print brings clarity. So also does our focus upon Christ's salvation. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. He came near to us. He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.

He calls us to abide with him. When we pray according to his truths and promises, when we honor his presence through his spirit, from his side, all matters are placed in their proper perspective. The vantage point from the throne, the bird's eye view, the vantage point from the side of Christ and abiding with him, all things are placed in their proper perspective, in their proper relationship.

And third, as the dawning of the sun untangles the shadows and the flipping on of a light switch exposes all the furniture in a room, so also does our focus upon Christ's glory. Pray the praise of Christ.

Pray his worthiness as our sovereign and our savior. Pray his titles, his names, his natures, his person, his words, his works. They are glorious. He is glorious. Before the brightness of his rising, all matters are placed in their proper light.

Christ the Great Physician for the Sick

Now, clarification is what is needed here in our passage. Clarification is what is needed in our prayers. Clarification was needed for Christ's disciples and his detractors. The Pharisees and their scribes grumbled against Christ.

By grumbling against his disciples, they sought to charge him with malpractice. And he admonishes them here by clarifying his compassionate ministry. So let's consider his illustration and his intervention and what these matters had to do with our prayer lives.

First, the illustration in verse 31. Now, he's giving this illustration about a physician and those who are sick because he means to clarify what he's all about. Following Jesus, this is important for considering Matthew.

Here he is following Jesus, and the very first day, the very first thing he does in following Jesus is throw him a big dinner or a feast. And as soon as he does, there's complaints and grumblings from the Pharisees and the scribes.

I mean, the very first thing he does is criticized by the religious leaders, those who were seen as the most spiritual and most holy. They point at what Matthew does, and they say, you're doing it all wrong.

This is bad. He needed some clarification. Following Jesus means understanding what he is up to, what he prioritizes, what he is all about. It is interesting that when you follow somebody else in a car and you have a caravan of cars going somewhere, we tend to ask the driver of the lead vehicle, which way are you taking?

We ask that because we want to be ready to make a left-hand turn or take the correct exit off the highway. Following Jesus in our prayers requires that we know which way he's taking so that our prayers may anticipate his direction as we respond to his revelation.

Christ's illustration clarifies our malady, his ministry, and the malpractice of the religious leaders of his day. First of all, his illustration clarifies our malady. He says, Jesus answered and said to them, it is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.

Those who are sick. You see, Jesus's answer to the Pharisees' question, in retrospect, makes their question seem really dumb. And they say, why are you eating with tax collectors and sinners? Well, here's Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, who forgives the sins of sinners, who heals the diseases of those who are sick.

So it just makes absolute sense. I mean, if you're a doctor, you don't spend all your time around healthy people. I mean, if you're a doctor, where do you go? You go to the sick people. That is blatantly obvious.

Jesus's answer to the Pharisees makes their question seem really dumb. It's kind of like asking, what is today when opening up presents on Christmas? It's obvious afterwards what day it is. Or asking, what time is it when you're wearing a watch?

Or asking, why is socialism bad while you're still breathing? Clearly, the tax collectors and the sinners were in need. They were the ones who needed the Son of Man. They were the ones who needed Christ.

It makes sense that those who were so ensnared in wicked ways, entrenched in sinful behavior, they're the ones who needed to hear the message of repentance. They were the sick. They needed the physician.

Those who need the salvation that only Christ provides, these are the sick. This helps us understand our malady. Do we understand our need for Christ? I mean, would you call yourself sick and in need of a physician?

Sick in the spiritual sense and in need of the great physician, Christ alone. Now, some of us don't like being sick, and so we never are, even when we are and in need of a remedy. It is difficult for some to admit that they are sick and in need of a doctor.

Others of us are always sick, trading one malady for another in close succession, and our difficulty is more about confronting the underlying cause. Now, if you have Christ as your Savior, it is because you are a sinner.

And if he is your great physician, it's because you are sick, greatly ill. You have Lazarus syndrome, dead in trespasses and sins, shot through with the venom of the snake, rotting in unrighteousness.

And only Christ can save us. Only Christ can heal us. Only Christ can raise us from the dead. There is a river of the water of life flowing from the throne, and only Jesus Christ can give us dry bones a drink.

So have we thanked Christ today for his saving grace? Have we thanked him? Do we rejoice in our salvation in our prayers? Or should we be praying along with the psalmist, restore unto me, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation?

If you are indeed the patient of the great physician, if you have eaten and drunk of Christ's healing provision, you are only alive because you are on his life support. And that should impact our prayers.

We ought to be praying as those who are that dependent upon the life of Christ. Well, he clarifies our malady with this illustration. He says, you know, I'm a physician. I've come for those who are sick.

That only makes sense. But he's also, by doing that, he's also clarifying his ministry. He's also clarifying his ministry. Jesus took the good news of his kingdom to those who were in great need, and they knew it.

They knew that they were sinners. They knew that they were outcasts. They knew they were cut off from the goodness of God. Doesn't it make sense that Jesus would go to them? That just makes sense. I mean, why don't the supposed miracle workers of our day take their giftings into the hospitals to heal all of those people?

Probably because they haven't found a way to build their insurance. But Jesus' common sense analogy must have seemed immediately obvious to his adversaries, to his detractors, these Pharisees and their scribes.

It must have seemed blatantly obvious to Christ's disciples and all around. I think it's one of those statements made in the midst of one of those situations where it cannot help but zing those, asking the questions out of a blustering protest.

We don't know how Jesus spoke these words, but I wonder if he spoke them softly. And if he did, it was a soft word that would break a bone. For his answer outshines their question to an embarrassing extent.

They were to be the high-minded, holy-handed, well-spoken adversary, more secure people of God. And yet, we just hear all this intensive angst and fear ringing in their question, why are you with these tax collectors and sinners?

But Jesus' answer to them is like apples of gold in settings of silver. This illustration is clarifying. The physician came for the sick. Yes, of course. That's why Jesus is with the tax collectors and with the sinners.

That's so clarifying. The physician came for the sick. The shepherd came for his sheep. The bread of life came to those who were hungry. He came to give the water of life to those who were thirsty. The bridegroom came for his bride.

The king has suffered and died and arose victorious, ascended triumphant, and reigns righteously to advance his kingdom. It just makes sense. When Christ's way is made clear to us, well, the physician goes to the sick.

The shepherd comes for his sheep. The king advances his kingdom. When the way of Christ is made clear to us in his word, then we are better equipped to pray in agreement with the desires of Christ. So are we praying in this way?

Are we praying according to the clarity of his ministry that we are given in this illustration and in other places in his word? Are we praying in agreement with his will that all of Christ's enemies will be put under his feet as his footstool?

Are we praying that the great physician will heal the putrefying wickedness of those who are dead in trespasses and sins? Jesus clarifies our malady. We're the sick. He clarifies his ministry. He's the physician, and he clarifies the malpractice of the Pharisees and the scribes.

Weren't they the religious leaders? Weren't they the ones who were entrusted with the word of God? Weren't they the ones who were supposed to be preaching a message of repentance and calling sinners back to God?

Weren't they the ones who were supposed to be helping the tax collectors and sinners? Implicit in their question was a protest that Christ would prefer the company of these wicked men to their own approval.

I mean, you would rather spend time with tax collectors and sinners than be well thought of by us? They rejected his preaching of forgiveness. They resented his feasting with publicans. Their resistance to his gospel had everything to do with their own confidence that they needed nothing from him at all.

They consider themselves already righteous, already good, already approved, already whole. They think of themselves as those who are well. Isn't that the point that Jesus makes? He, you know, why is he with tax collectors and sinners instead of hanging out with the holy righteous people?

He says, it is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. He says, I'm not hanging out with you because you think you're already cured. You think you're already well. I'm with the ones who are sick and they know they're sick.

So these Pharisees, these scribes are not only wrong in how they consider themselves already righteous, good, approved, and whole, but because they are religious practitioners, they not only heal their wounds superficially, but they perform this very same malpractice upon others.

In the gospel of Matthew in chapter 23 verses 13 and 15, Jesus confronts the malpractice of the Pharisees and the scribes. He says, but woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people, for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

Verse 15, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

Now, the kind of malpractice that the Pharisees and the scribes were engaging in, the kind in which they would say of themselves, we are well and righteous and whole, and people who do things our way are also well and righteous and whole, but in fact that they're not, and they're covering over the real sickness, the real wound, the real problem in a superficial way, they're using religion as a covering rather than for communion, that kind of malpractice has a long and harrowing tradition.

Go back to Jeremiah chapter 8 verses 8 through 11. How can you say, Jeremiah complains against the scribes and the false prophets of his day. He says, how can you say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us?

And that's what the Pharisees and scribes would have said in Jesus' day. We are wise. They would say we are wise. We know. We know the law. We know the scriptures. We know all of the teachings around the scriptures.

The law of the Lord is with us. We've got the law with us. We know what it means. We know what it says, and we know how to interpret it. We know how to imply it. We've got the quarter on the market. Now, listen, how can you say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us?

But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. By the way, they were wrongly interpreting God's law. They had taken the true words of scripture and twisted them into a lie. That's Satan's work.

The wise men are put to shame. They are dismayed and caught. Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord. Jeremiah says this of people who made their living by the word of the Lord. Jesus is confronting those who made their living by following the word of the Lord, the scriptures, but in fact, they had rejected it.

And what kind of wisdom do they have, Jeremiah says? If they've rejected the word of the Lord, if the lying pen of the scribe has twisted the truths of God into lies, I mean, what kind of wisdom could they have?

They don't. Therefore, God promises about the lying scribes and the false teachers of Jeremiah's day, therefore, I will give their wives to other, their fields to new owners, because from the least even to the greatest, everyone is greedy for gain.

When the prophet even to the priest, everyone practices deceit. Jesus said the same thing about the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23. They heal the brokenness of the daughter of my people superficially saying, peace, peace, but there is no peace.

Shalom, shalom, but there is no shalom. We're whole, we're whole, we're okay, we're okay. But in fact, that's not true. So as those in Jeremiah's day, so also those in Jesus's day, they practiced deceit and they called it truth.

And Jesus wept over their condition. Luke 13, 34. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I would have gathered you under my wings as a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you were not willing. And now your house will be left to you desolate.

He, he warned over the condition of the people. So also to Jeremiah chapter eight, verse 21, for the brokenness of the daughter of my people, I am broken. I mourn. Dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead?

Here's the question. Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored? You see, Jesus came as the great physician into a culture, a group of people who should have known better.

There were the scribes, there were the teachers of the law, but they had turned it into lies and deceit. And they were healing the brokenness of the people superficially saying, here's how you're whole, here's how you're whole, but they weren't really.

And the brokenness of the people was miserable. And the question that Jeremiah asked, is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Well, Jesus Christ came and he said, I am the physician. I am the physician.

And as a physician, I go to those who are sick, those who are broken to come and bind up that which was broken, to do it on the real deep level, not on a shallow level. Think about what this has to do with our prayer lives.

What kind of healing, what kind of wholeness, what kind of peace, what kind of shalom are you praying for? So often we just want a quick and superficial solution. We pray for the alleviation of symptoms, the removal of troubles, the soothing of emotions.

But do we pray for the kind of healing, the kind of restoration that great physician offers? Repentance, reconciliation, restoration, renewal. Are we praying for Christ to do his work, the manifestation of the new creation?

Or are we just trying to plaster over the old creation? Well, this illustration we see is very instructive for our prayer lives. And we've dealt with the meaning of the illustration that which Jesus explains in verse 32.

Christ's Call to Repentance and Salvation

But we also need to think of the use of this illustration, the way in which Jesus intervenes to answer their question. He says, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. They say, why do you eat and drink with these tax collectors and sinners?

Jesus says, the physician comes to those who are sick, not those who are well. And he says, I have come, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. There's that word call. Jesus had gone to Levi to call him to repentance.

Why? Levi was a sinner. He knew he was a sinner. He knew he needed forgiveness. And Jesus came to him and called him to repentance to follow after him. That is the grace of God. And the scribes and Pharisees want to know why they're not hanging, why he's not aiming for their approval.

Why is he with these sinners and tax collectors? Because they need repentance. They need salvation. The very fact that Jesus gave an answer to these grumblers proves that he is a compassionate, long-suffering, patient kind of a savior.

He answers their grumblings against him. But even as he does, he exposes the pride that is in their hearts. Why am I over here with the tax collectors and sinners and not with you? Do you want to know why that is?

Because I'm with the, I'm with the sick and the sinners, not with the well and the righteous. Jesus in putting his attention towards the tax collectors and sinners and explaining the obvious to the Pharisees and the scribes, he's resisting the proud, resisting the proud.

Pharisees were very proud. You may remember the way that they prayed. And Jesus, a story that he told, and I'm sure he got several chuckles from the crowd as he did so, about the tax collector who prayed to himself versus the tax, I mean, the Pharisee who prayed to himself and then the tax collector off to the side who prayed to God.

The Pharisees were very proud in the way that they prayed, and Jesus resisted them. He resisted them. The problem with the stiff-necked is they never can turn around. They can never turn away. The grace of God has to humble a person, has to humble a man in order for them to repent and turn away.

God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Jesus is calling sinners to repentance. Jesus is calling those who are broken over their sins to come to him to find forgiveness, to find restoration, to find healing.

And that is the intervention that he is giving here in this moment. So as we consider what it means to follow Jesus in our prayer lives and the fact that these matters are clarified for us in Jesus's illustration, his answer, I think it is important for us to recognize in closing, it's not just important for the saints in prayer to have clarity concerning who it is to whom we pray, but it is also important for sinners to be clear on who Christ is.

We don't want our wicked family members, our unbelieving neighbors, we don't want them unclear on who Jesus is. Would we really be satisfied with praying our loved ones out of hell if it meant that even though they would never know Christ?

It's not even possible. I mean, but what is it we're after in praying for their salvation? That's my question. What is it that we're after in praying for the salvation of our loved ones, of our neighbors and our co-workers?

What are we praying for? Simply that they will escape hell and so we won't feel as bad about it? Or are we praying that they would know Christ? What use is our praying for people to be saved if we care not if they remain confused and befuddled about the person of Jesus Christ, if they maintain several falsehoods about His nature and His ministry?

And that's impossible for anyone to be saved as long as they do not know Christ. When we're praying, Jesus said, I came for the sick, I came for the sinners. And while we should be praying for sinners to come to repentance, we should be praying for for those who are in need of Christ to be saved by Christ.

But what does it mean for someone to have eternal life? What does it mean for them to be saved? John 17 3, Jesus says, this is eternal life, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

That's what it means to be saved. That's what it means to have eternal life, to really truly know who God is and to know who Christ is. And that is for what we must pray, that kind of clarification in the lives of sinners.

Closing Prayer for the Knowledge of God and Christ

Let's close in prayer. Father, I thank you for the time that you've given us in your Word. I thank you for the illustration that Jesus gave, how He is the Great Physician and we are the sick. He has come to call sinners to repentance.

Lord, I pray that you would keep that picture of the Great Physician in our minds as we pray, that we would understand our need, we would understand His grace, and that we would pray according to your will that sinners would know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

I pray these things in His name. Amen.