Word of Salvation – Vol. 41 No. 35 – September 1996

 

Grace Has The Power To Transform

 

Sermon by Rev. J. TerHorst on Mark 2:13-17

Scripture Reading: John 8:1-11; Mark 2:1-17

Suggested Hymns: BoW 329, 315, 212, 211, 498, 372

 

Congregation belonging to Jesus, friends and guests;

Introduction: Setting The Scene

You will notice, if you still have your Bibles open, that verses 1-12 of chapter 2 puts Jesus in Capernaum.  Verse 2 is reminding us of Jesus’ popularity.  The NIV has as a title for those verses, “Jesus heals a paralytic.”  While that is true, it is also a little misleading.

The main emphasis in that story is not the healing.  Jesus came, primarily, to preach the Good News of forgiveness, not to heal.  The healing of the paralytic was only proof of Jesus’ ability to forgive sin.

However, the setting for the first twelve verses is Capernaum.  Then, according to verse 13, Jesus is out by the lake of Galilee.  But by verse 14 He is back in Capernaum, where He finds and calls Levi to discipleship.  And we ask, why leave the city momentarily, if only to return in pursuit of His ministry?  Why not go directly from the house where He healed the paralytic, to Levi?

Mark has good reason for this.  It occurs throughout his Gospel account.  We read it for the first time in chapter 1 verse 35, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place, where He prayed.”

Congregation, after a demonstration of the saving power of God, Jesus withdraws, either to the wilderness, a mountainous area, or the sea.  Jesus isolates Himself, as it were, to spend time in prayer with His Father.  The temptation of popularity can easily deviate Him from His mission.  But His mission was to do the will of the Father, not to win the award for the most popular preacher of the year.  Jesus needs to be alone with God.

And so do we!  Let us learn this important lesson from our Master.  Without quiet times of Bible reading and prayer, you and I will lose the plot.  We will lose sight of our mission.  We will lose sight of our purpose for being here.  My brother and sister in Christ, be encouraged to read and pray daily.  In so doing we will find it easier to, “…fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Point 1  The Calling of Levi

Jesus did not have a lot of time alone.  We read, “A large crowd came to Him…!”  Although it would seem, by this time, Jesus would have been back on His way into Capernaum because we read, “As He walked along, He saw Levi, son of Alphaeus…!”  And, in all probability, Levi would not have been sitting out by the lake collecting taxes.  Rather, he would have been along the international highway running between Syria, which lay to the North-East through Capernaum, and down to Egypt in the South-West.

Levi was a Jew, who worked for the Romans.  As such, he was regarded as an outcast from Jewish society.  He was forbidden by Jewish law to act as a witness in a Jewish court session.  Furthermore, because of his work he had been excommunicated from the Synagogue.  He was despised by all and sundry.  Levi was a traitor.  As a traitor he was not welcome amongst the Jews.  As a Jew, he would never be accepted by the Romans.  In other words, Levi didn’t belong anywhere.  He must have been a lonely man.

As a tax collector Levi had great potential for extortion.  The Roman authorities had no exact stipulations of how much tax was to be paid by individuals.  It was simply the responsibility of the tax collector to hand over annually, whatever amount the Romans had assessed that particular area should pay.  Any money collected over and above that amount, the tax collector could keep.

Every time Levi collected taxes from the Jews, it only reinforced their deep-seated conviction that Levi was a cheat.  Which in all likelihood, he was.  When Jesus approached the tax booth, He did not see Levi the scoundrel, He saw Matthew, which means, ‘gift of God’.

I want to tell you a true story about Donatello and Michelangelo.  I am sure most of you have heard those two names before.  But to save any possible confusion, I am not talking about two of those four ninja turtles.  I refer instead to the sculptors.

One day Donatello was looking at a great marble block.  It was to be carved into a statue of a great Old Testament prophet.  But Donatello noticed the block contained imperfections.  So he rejected it at once.  But another sculptor looked at that same block, and saw it had potential.  He accepted it and began his work.

For two years the second sculptor, Michelangelo, chipped away at that block.  Slowly but surely an image began to take shape.  And finally the work was complete.  And guess what, you can still view that very work of art today.  It is the statue of David; now a much treasured and loved work of art.

When Jesus saw Levi, He, too, noticed the imperfections.  All the flaws in Levi’s character could be seen by Jesus, whose eyes penetrates beneath the masks we all wear.  He saw the scoundrel in Levi.

But, congregation, Jesus also knew what the transforming power of the grace of God could accomplish!  Jesus knew that God’s transforming grace can turn cheats into faithful and reliable disciples.  That grace can transform people like Levi, the cheat, into people like Matthew, the evangelist; turn people like Levi, the traitor, into people like Matthew, the Gospel writer.

And so, Jesus called, and Matthew followed, literally burning his bridges behind him.  Once he left his position as tax collector, he would not be able to return at a later date.  His boss would not hold his position ‘open’ for him.  He had already been ostracised from the Jewish race, now he was cutting himself off from further work with the Romans, too.

In this sense, for Levi to follow Jesus was more courageous than it was for Peter and John.  Peter and John could always return to fishing, as in fact they did after Jesus’ death.  Matthew would have no job to return to, and he knew it!  Notice again Mark gives only the barest details concerning Levi, because the radical nature of Jesus’ call is more important than the one called.

To follow Jesus always calls for sacrifices.  If you and I can follow Jesus without ever making any sacrifices, we need to re-check our understanding of discipleship.  Self-denial is the order of the day for those who want to call themselves Christians.  To take up one’s cross involves taking up the work of God as a first priority.  As Matthew himself later records, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

When you and I meet and talk with unbelievers, what do we see?  Do we just see the seemingly insurmountable problems they have?  Are we open only to observing the character flaws?  Is our first concern their behavioural shortcomings?  Or, do we, like Jesus, see what the transforming power of God can accomplish in a person’s life?  I’m convinced not one disciple would have chosen Saul of Tarshish as a potential leader of God’s church.  But what a transformation!  Grace can transform slave-traders into hymn writers.

Congregation, let us always remember the grace of God is considerably more powerful than what we often imagine.  Its ability to transform lives is abundantly greater than we give it credit.  The grace of God has the potential to declare the filthiest person clean – even a convicted thief, hanging on a cross.  It has the potential to declare the vilest of people forgiven.  It has the potential to convert the most miserable of sinners, to children of God.

Let’s be honest, if it were not so, you and I would never have made it into the Kingdom of God.  If it were not so, we would not be members of Christ’s family.  For you have your faults, just like I have mine.  We may struggle with different temptations, but we all struggle.  Some will be more obvious than others, but not one of us can stake a claim to perfection.

Some find the temptation of greed more difficult to resist than others.  Some struggle with the urge to burst out in anger as soon as they feel frustrated.  Yet still others find it difficult to forgive people once they have been hurt.  Perhaps some of you sitting here are more prone to sexual sins.  In the eyes of God, we are all sinners, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom.3:23).  In the opinion of the Jews, the sin of Levi was both obvious, and serious.  However, Jesus knows that God’s grace can accomplish much.  Jesus sees a transformed Levi.  He sees a Matthew.

Point 2  The Dinner Party

We read in verse 14, “…and Levi got up and followed Him.”  And immediately Levi’s life was revolutionised!  From being a person nobody wanted, Levi finds unconditional love and acceptance.  Levi, who was lost, has been found by Jesus.  Now he no longer faces eternal punishment and agony.  No longer need he fear facing God only as a righteous judge.  He has started the journey of eternal happiness and peace.  Levi finds forgiveness and mercy.

So, Levi sponsors a reception in Jesus’ honour.  He wants to celebrate this new found freedom and joy – like the father of the prodigal son, who said, “But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found.”  And the celebrations on earth are only echoes of the celebrations in heaven.  For we read in Luke 15, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

I personally cannot think of a better reason to have a party than this.  This is more exhilarating than celebrating a birthday.  This is a more meaningful celebration than a wedding anniversary.  We celebrate our new birth because it is the beginning of a beautiful relationship with our heavenly Father.  At our new birth you and I begin to know what real love is all about.  Not the type of love that is bandied around on daily ‘soaps’ on the television.  But the love of God which surpasses our expectations again and again.

We discover what it means to be accepted for who we are.  And how each of us struggle with that.  You and I are often our own worst enemy in this.  We think God could not possibly love us, and care about us.  We see our own faults and tend to focus only on them.  We see only the shortcomings in our lives.  God sees that, too.  But God also sees what can be!  God also sees the finished product, once divine grace has run its course.  God also sees in my life, and in yours, perfection.

O my friends, what a joy it is to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.  To be a part of God’s family.  What comfort there is in knowing that we belong to Him, body and soul, in life and in death.  That nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Do you each know this love of God personally?  Or are there perhaps people here who have not yet accepted all that God has to offer?  If so, let me say to you now, God loves you without any reservations.  God is able and willing to forgive you every single sin.  Whatever your past, however you see yourself.  God wants to cleanse, wants to renew you.

Do not allow your own limited ability determine what God is able to do in your life.  Tell Him you want to be His child, you long to be loved and accepted.  Tell Him you desire to be a part of His family.  And let me assure you, God will not say “No!” to anyone who asks.  Rather He will surround you with His arms of sovereign love and take you to His side.

Levi was celebrating, and why not?  He had found a new life.  But not everyone at the party was celebrating.  There were people at the banquet who came only to criticise – who came only to pick fault – people who saw this as yet another opportunity to scrutinise the behaviour of Jesus and His followers.

Notice their under-handed way of ridiculing Jesus.  They approach Jesus’ disciples with their question – perhaps afraid of a face to face confrontation.  Not going directly to Jesus, they prefer the safer option.  They question His disciples.  A question meant to instil in the minds of these new disciples, these new converts we could say, doubt about Jesus’ claim to be a teacher.  “Why does He eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” (verse 16).  In other words, if Jesus is a teacher, as He claims, He should know better than that.

Allow me to explain what they are saying…  You see, congregation, the Pharisees had rules concerning banquets, rules of behaviour which prevented them from being the guest of a common person.  And Levi, of course, was considered to be such a person.  Their rules of behaviour did not allow them to recline at table with ignorant people, that is, those not well-versed in the Law.  And Levi and his friends were that sort of ignorant people.  According to their man-made rules, they were asking a valid question.

However, just as a little aside, if they were so concerned about Jesus’ presence there, what were they doing at the banquet?  But we will not pursue that question at this point.

Jesus’ response to them is, as usual, a very clear and correct one: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The first sentence of His response was a common proverb of that day.  In His response Jesus acknowledged that if the Pharisees believed themselves to be righteous, He had not come for their benefit.  If they believed themselves healthy, they then had no reason to spend time with Jesus.  He had come, as Matthew himself would later write, “…for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”  Unless the Pharisees recognised their need of Jesus, there was little He could offer them.

People today, at least in our Western society, do not understand their need for Jesus.  All their needs, so they believe, can be met without the intervention of the church, or God.  This is something you and I can do little about, except pray!  It is the work of God’s Holy Spirit to create that hunger, that yearning for Jesus Christ.  All our efforts at witnessing and evangelism of necessity needs to be accompanied with much prayer.  Prayer that seeks for a change in heart.  Prayer that seeks for an openness to the Gospel of God’s love in Jesus Christ.

Conclusion:  Where To Now?

Congregation, what do we learn from Christ celebrating with tax collectors and “sinners”?  We learn two things: First, neither Jesus, nor His disciples isolated themselves from those in need.  They didn’t avoid contact with those who needed them most.  Second, neither did they assimilate and become like the people they freely mixed with.  Rather, they were on a mission; a mission to call sinners to repentance.

And that is still what God calls His Church to!  Not to isolate themselves from those who need to hear and experience God’s love.  Nor is the church – you and I – to assimilate; to become so much a part of the world that it is hard to tell the difference between believers and unbelievers.  Jesus reminds us in His high-priestly prayer that we are not of the world.  Yet that is where our work is!

Still today Jesus calls, through His Church, not those who are healthy, but those who are sick; those in need of forgiveness; those who need to be healed from the trauma of Satanic enslavement; those who live each day without any hope for tomorrow, or the long term future; those who do not know what it means to be unconditionally loved and accepted.

This is our mission.  This is the purpose for our existence.  May we always live with that in mind, for in so living, God our Father is glorified!

Amen.