 We're going to cover Mark chapter 2 verses 13 to 17 and What I would want you to think about is When you see a helicopter What do you think about when you think of the image of a helicopter what comes to mind? well in 1987 in July 17th of 1987 there was a group of children in from a Baptist Church in a camp in Texas and They were beginning to prepare to leave the camp because it was flooding season and As they began to leave in their bus To try and get back home They got up to a river that was over flooded They the bus driver decided to go over the bridge a Wall of water rushed over 60 mile an hour water rushed over the bridge caught the bus with some 43 kids inside and They began to Try and escape the bus in the midst of a river of water and As they did so They would get out and the river would sweep them away and Many of them would cling to trees They would cling to trees in the midst of a overflown river Going 60 mile an hour water going by Helicopters were called in to try and air vac the and deliver and save these kids out of trees 10 of the kids did not make it and they drowned 33 of the children were able to be delivered by the helicopters out to dry land Now I ask you when a child when one of those child or one of the family members of those children When they see a helicopter What did they think of? with great need You begin to see things differently now. Let me ask you a question How much sin do you have the how you answer that question makes you Changes how you see Jesus Jesus Christ Do you see when you understand your great need then you have different eyesight to see Jesus Christ This text is a particular blessing because it teaches us how much we need Jesus Christ It teaches us that in order to be able to see and know Jesus Christ. You must first see your sin The more you see your sin the more you will love Jesus Christ So I asked you the question how sick are you? How sick are you? If you look in our text in verses and you should have an outline in your bulletin to help you follow along Here's the outline We're gonna see three different groups first is Jesus and We'll see Jesus first come to the sinners in verses 13 to 15 Verses 13 to 15 we see Jesus calling sinners to follow him and then in verses 16 to 17 We see Gina Jesus calls the sinners not the self-righteous He calls sinners on the self-righteous so in verses 13 to 15. We'll see those who acknowledge their sin In verses 17 16 to 17. We'll see those who do not Everybody is in one of two camps Either you're a humble sinner or you're a self-righteous sinner everybody here and everybody outside is in one of those two camps and you Your understanding of who Jesus is is based on that So are you a humble sinner or are you a self-righteous sinner? Let's look and see the the beauty of our Savior as he As he confronts various sinners in this text. So first the context Look with me and we'll skim through the book of Mark to remember where Jesus is in the context Okay, if you flip to chapter 1 in Mark And you begin to see how is Jesus introduced and how is he could? Come across in this story of the gospel according to Mark and if you see in verses 2 and 3 Mark brings the Old Testament to bear to say who Jesus is that he is the Lord and that John the Baptist was preparing His way preparing the way for Yahweh and it was Jesus and John the Baptist testifies We see in verses 9 to 11 Jesus is is drawn out into the wilderness and Into 12 and 13 at Jesus's baptism the trinity testifies and then when Jesus is driven into the wilderness even Satan has to testify that he's been defeated by Jesus Christ in Verses 14 to 15 we see the message summarized of Jesus that he said he preaches that he must repent and believe and Then in verses 16 to 20. He begins to call followers to his side In verses 21 to 28 Jesus goes to a synagogue and he has power over demons in Verses 29 to 31. He has power over sickness and Then in chapter 1 verse 38. He says his purpose He says let us go into the next towns that I might preach there also because for this purpose I have come and he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all galley can casting out demons and Verses 40 to 45 we see him healing and saving a leper and Then in we're in chapter 2 in verses 1 to 13 1 to 12 We see that Jesus forgives sin for those who have faith in him Now we come up to verses 13 to 17 and what do we see? But we see Who Jesus forgives of sin? Who he forgives of sin is? the humble sinner They read with me in verse 13 Then he went again by the sea and all the multitudes came to him and he taught them First you see in verse 13 it describes Jesus went out again here likely He's been in the house of Matthew and he's coming out by the sea This is the place where Jesus likes to go Jesus likes to go by the sea because there are many people there It's a place of commerce is place of activity It's a place where he can preach and teach and reach many different people It's a public venue and it's a place where there's a lot of activity so he again he goes out by the sea and Why is he going? He's going because for the same purpose for which he came to preach and He's coming to this seaside and he is in particular He has someone that he's in particular has in mind to go and reach What happens is a multitude come to him and the multitudes have been growing They have been growing because of the healing ministry of Jesus Christ He's been he's been growing because Imagine you know people talk about health care in the US and they maybe they want free health care imagine if Jesus is there and he offers free health care instantly on the spot It'd be worth the wait in line, right? The the group there's a great community wanting to follow him For various reasons for various reasons But Jesus is here and it says at the end of verse 13 and he taught them and he taught them You don't have to wonder what Jesus was teaching Because it's summarized in chapter 1 verses 14 15. He's preaching about repentance. He's preaching about faith He's preaching about who he is and This preaching and healing ministry shows the mercy compassion of God It shows his kindness and how he cares for the body and soul It shows how he's seeking to be other to save others and As he's making this general call out in the community Likely there's someone listening in There's someone in particular listening in to Jesus teach and preach and who is it in verse 14 But a particular person look with me and as he passed by he saw Levi the son of alpheus Sitting in the tax office and he said to him follow me so he arose and followed him here Jesus is passing by as if at perhaps after his teaching and He sees Levi the son of alpheus. We know him as Matthew We know him as Matthew He writes the first gospel and here he is sitting at a tax office Think with me and as I remind you what does it mean culturally? What does it mean for for Matthew? Who is Matthew and what is he doing in this time? Who is Matthew and what is he doing in this time? He is a Tax collector remember there are different types of tax collectors in the ancient world There are three primary categories. There's the goodbye and Mokes in mokes. They're greater mokes and lesser mokes So what happens is Rome? has taken over Israel and they set up a tax franchises and in order to Have one of these franchises you have to have a lot of money In order to purchase them from Rome and you'll run it and if you run it. You're called a greater moke You're someone who hires others to collect taxes for them And then you hire the small mokes They're those who will sit in a tax office and they do the assessing and collecting. This is what Matthew did He's someone who has goodbye under him Who collect general taxes on land and property and income like poll taxes registration taxes? So since he is someone it'd be if you think about it like if you own a McDonald's Okay, you own a whole bunch of McDonald's you'd be like a greater moke If you were a manager running one McDonald you'd be like a lesser moke and if you flip the burgers then you're a goodbye Now every one of these categories of people They're going to be hated and despised Hated and despised Because they're an ever-presence reminder of Rome When if you're an Israelite you would hate the overbearing idolatrous rule of Rome Idolaters who worship false gods and in who are immoral coming in Taking over God's country and employing taxes that you would have to pay back to them And they would use their taxes for evil. That's to be the thinking of an Israelite and Then they would hire Israelites Israelites who would sell their soul to the devil Sell their soul to the devil and take taxes for Rome That's the mindset of a Jewish person in this time and in part They would someone who would become a tax collector would do that Because they would be ostracized from worship. They would not be allowed in the synagogue They would not be allowed to testify in court. They would be You'd be kicked out of polite society. You would not be able to go and worship God Think about the who Matthew is now then he is someone Who has weighed out? money or God money or God and he's chosen money He's purposely and intentionally Chosen money to be more important than God He's someone who has sold his soul for his God He would receive many insults. He would receive much hatred As he would stand on his tax booth the booth would be similar to like an elevated Like this is elevated here. He would be able to sit at his booth and as people went by Perhaps even fishermen he would tax them for their business Some of the disciples may have even known him because he would be taxing people in Galilee He would have primarily two types of taxes had tax on individuals was relatively small but then revenue tribute tax for goods and produce brought into the area for sale and The way that a tax collector would work is a small mok would have to Give a certain amount of money to the greater mohk and the greater mohk has to give a certain amount of money to roam So once they know how much money they're required to give Then everything else is theirs So because of that, they would change the tax rules. They change the tax laws so that they can fill their pockets Matthew would become a very rich guy But it we many people would hate him and Matthew would be have a thick skin He would have a thick skin because of how much hatred he He hears how many scowls he would he would see how many curses would he hear and He wouldn't care. He wouldn't care. He would just gather in more money. He would Comfort himself with his big house He would comfort himself around his friends that are also not allowed to worship he would be kicked out of society and Jesus now imagine our setting now Jesus comes and he sets up in such a place Where Matthew can hear him? He sets up in such a place and perhaps even the disciples come by in in even being taxed and They are able to speak to Matthew somehow Matthew is able to hear of Jesus Christ Look and see the very intentional effort in which Jesus goes about to reach Matthew You can see Christ's love for individuals here Praise God for how he specifically and lovingly Pursues lost sinners praise God for how he specifically came looking for you Look here now at what happens to Matthew. What does Jesus say when he comes up to Matthew? while he's sitting in verse 14 while he's sitting at his tax office and Jesus passes by purposely intentionally and he says to him follow me You can imagine someone preaching in the in the park, right? And there's a crowd who hears them preach the gospel in the park And then afterwards the preacher stops and there's still people sitting around and often the opener preacher who preaches the gospel will go up to Somebody individual and then he'll say to them something. Do you understand what you what you heard? Do you want to follow Christ? He sees someone listening intentionally someone who's soft It's almost as if Jesus could see him beginning to weep And he goes up to him and he says to him Follow me Matthew has to know something about Jesus in order to understand these words. He has to understand follow What does that mean? What is it going to mean for Matthew to follow Jesus Christ to do what Jesus Christ does? He's got to know follow me. He's got to know who Jesus is So he's got to know who Jesus is and what his teachings are He's got to consider Jesus and then he's got to consider his life He's got to consider that now he's not following him Now he doesn't know Jesus like he should do you see the call to discipleship here? Do you see how Matthew then has to consider the cost? Matthew has to consider How how much his money he has to consider his God? the dollar bill He has to look at it and then he has to look at Jesus He has to look at his life and who his friends are and he has to look at the disciples and what they're like He has to calculate in his mind. Is it worth it to follow Jesus Christ? What about my what is it gonna cost me in my sin? What does it happen? How does Matthew respond? It says in the end of verse 14 so he arose and followed him So he arose and followed him Do you see the miracle that happens in verse 14 when you consider the background of who Matthew is and you consider who? Jesus is how hard Matthew would be the miracle that is happening there So he arose and followed him here the meaning of follow me. This is what Jesus Said continually and repeatedly. Have you ever considered what Jesus what the most common phrase of Jesus is? What is the thing that Jesus said the most? This race follow me follow me What do you to apply today? to follow him if You look through the Bible and you consider what does it mean to follow Jesus? You can see there's a literal meaning to it and You can see how there's a meaning of following his teaching following who he is Jesus called Peter Andrew James and John in Matthew 4 to come and follow him and he'll make him fishers of men Jesus would repeatedly come back to the disciples and tell them follow me like in Matthew 8 18 to 22 and when he would tell the crowds he would say let the dead bury their dead But come and follow me and Matthew 9 verses 38 to 39 When he's sending out the 12 he says that you need to take up your cross and follow me We see that evangelism is part of what it means to follow him persecution is what it means to follow him in Luke 9 23 to 26 we see it will cost you that you must deny yourself. You must deny your life You must deny who you are You must be willing to die take up your cross and follow me in Mark 10. There's a rich young ruler who comes to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ calls him to sell all and follow him But the rich young ruler doesn't he's not willing it to follow Jesus In Luke 18 verses 35 to 43 we see Bartimaeus a blind man who rises up and follows Jesus in John 1 we see Andrew Peter Nathaniel Philip follow Jesus in John 10 We hear about the sheep who follow the Good Shepherd in John 12 Verses 23 to 26 Jesus calls you to lose your life to gain it to follow him and In John 21 Jesus mercifully restores Peter calling him to follow him There is a necessary Submitting of yourself to Jesus Christ if you want to be a Christian You must submit to his lordship his authority his words his wisdom The call to discipleship is the call to be a learning follower You must learn of who Jesus is you must submit to his authority. You just can't learn You just can't say well, I know of Jesus Christ I'll learn of him in the Bible. You have to obey and follow him. You cannot Disconnect the two You cannot disconnect the two you do not have a relationship with God if you just learn of him You must be a learning follower. You cannot follow him if you do not learn of him The two must go together You can't make up your own idea of what it means to follow Jesus Christ You have to learn of him in your in the word You have to learn of him on how he's a prophet and how he's a priest and how he's a king You have to learn of more of Jesus Christ in order to follow him more The call to you today is to be a disciple to be a learning follower Christ is not here physically now calling you to follow him But he called some who called others who called others who called others who called others and now The calls to you You're alive now. You're hearing the call of Christ from his word to come Follow Jesus Christ be his disciple consider the cost become and be a learning follower of Jesus Christ He's not here, but his church is so how do you know if you're following him? Are you part of the church? Are you committed? Are you? Submitting to the to the leadership and to the way that the church calls you to follow Christ Are you willing to continually pay the price to follow Christ? Are you in the word to know him and follow him? Are you pouring over passages of scripture? Are you learning of Christ doctrine and growing in? Your manner of life. Are you growing in your obedience? That is how you know if you're following Jesus Do you see the individual nature here of the call to be a Christian? There are many Discoveries and decisions and good things to make. I remember there's a sir James Simpson is the one who discovered chloroform for surgery But when he was at the end of his life, he said his greatest discovery was not of the What could be used for surgery, but it said his described greatest discovery was of his savior Do you have that attitude about Jesus Christ? Is that your heart about him? That's what Jesus came up to Matthew to call him to do With great grace with great authority. Do you see that with great grace? He comes to Matthew the worst sinner in the bunch with great authority. He says follow me Do you have the same call? Yes. Do you will you obey the same call? Look at how Matthew arose. He didn't have to go home and think about it But he forsook all even if it cost him all his money He was determined He determined in his cost as zealously as he followed money now zealously. He'll follow Jesus Christ It was immediate He knew what Jesus was saying was true So he didn't delay. He took immediate action It was wholehearted In what Matthew did He didn't try and stay behind With one foot in the world and one foot out He was wholeheartedly ready to follow Christ. It was exclusive He wasn't depending on himself, but fully on Christ Matthew's following was life-changing It was Christ directed and it was life-long it would cost him his very life One day he would be martyred for the faith Following Jesus Christ for you is the same You have to forsake sin. You have to be determined. You have to have immediately Immediately called to follow Jesus Christ. You have to have this be wholehearted You have to have an exclusive love for Christ above all else and all else will look like hatred You have to have a life change that is radical You have to have Christ to be the focus of your Christianity. You have to have this be life-long The call to follow Jesus Christ is not that just the call to Matthew two thousand years ago It's the call to you right now and continuing Will you follow Jesus Christ? Look at what happens now in our story in verse 15 Matthew's humble and costly response at the end of verse 14 We see now he has another risk part of that response Which is care for others in verse 15 Now it happened as he was dining in Levi's house that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and his Disciples for they were many and they followed him For they were many and they followed him In verse 15 here here is a Jewish way of telling the story As it's a phrase to be able to develop what happens next now it happened next in our story Meanwhile back at the ranch He says as he was dining in Levi's house That many tax collectors and sinners also sat with Jesus and his disciples Matthew since he's ostracized from society. He has friends that are also outside of society criminals prostitutes other tax collectors the worst of the worst Now for us, this is kind of difficult to understand because in the US We there is a great push in all of our society to become more and more secular and to have No segment of society that is ostracized. It doesn't matter how wicked and how evil and perverse you are That sin is fine. That sin is fine. You can see it with homosexuality The push that there would be no group in society Regardless of what kind of evil thing they do that they would somehow be ostracized So for us to understand this we'd have to go back in time or is it or understand something that's different than our country here in in Israel There there is much division Between because there's an acknowledgement of truth that the Bible is true But in here in the US we since we deny that more and more and more So therefore the foundation of truth is eroded more and more and more There is no foundation to be able to decide what it's right and wrong and to distance yourself from a lifestyle of sin instead We have all sorts of Lifestyles of sin mixed together Here Jesus goes pursuing those who know That they are estranged from God. They know they're separate from God They know they can't just come in with their sin and worship God They know that because of how much of the Bible is around in the community But Jesus goes searching for them Matthew goes searching for them now because he's following Jesus and So Matthew has this idea where they can't come to the synagogue to hear Jesus where he's teaching and preaching He knows they may be able to hear him outside, but Matthew's not gonna leave that to chance Matthew's not gonna leave it to he's gonna set it up. He's gonna set up a lunch at his house he's gonna set up lunch at his house and It just so happens that Jesus is gonna show up and as they begin to recline and dine around and leave ice house Here the the dining here is the same for the reclining in The ancient Middle East how you would eat is to be gathered around a Like a very low couch Laying out on a couch. It's kind of a comfortable way Some of you guys may eat that way in front of the TV, right laid out with lots of pillows You know in the crumbs go over the couch, right? You can imagine a similar kind of meal going on with a guy's layout and they begin to talk to one another and Jesus Christ is here and who's he here with? It says he's here with tax collectors and sinners This pursuing of Matthew and Jesus pursuing the sinners Shows great hospitality. It shows great love and care That the Pharisees are not doing this. This is not what is accepted in polite society You would not eat with someone who was a tax collector and a sinner Luke tells us that this is a great feast that they're having Luke Paul Matthew pulled out all the stops Let's get he got the best food. He got the He laid it all out and made sure everybody was comfortable and set up the whole service the whole service and Matthew's mind He has it. This is gonna be like a church service Where Jesus is then gonna be able to teach them about what it means to follow him We can see as in these groups That the tax collectors and the sinners the tax collectors Remember how in Matthew 5 Jesus says a tax collector. He uses a tax collector as describing as an example of the worst kind of person That even they love those who love them The tax collectors we learn about tax collectors in the Bible and we see in Matthew 18 That those who continue in sin should be treated as if they're a tax collector to be separated from In Luke 3 we see tax collectors who follow Jesus who follow John the Baptist and they're called not to steal from the people anymore Sinners is a term used throughout the Bible generally To this goes with tax collectors So here in this term could be general other general types of sinners who cannot be part of the worship For example Peter in Luke 5 called himself a sinful man and Luke 7 Verses 37 to 39 a prostitute is called a sinner In Luke 19 Zacchaeus was called a sinner Paul tells us in 1st Timothy 1 that the law is made for sinners the law is made to show us that we're sinners Here around Jesus is a mafia of criminals But there's a revival happening a revival happening Where there are humble sinners coming how do you know there's a revival happening look at what it says They sat together with Jesus and his disciples here the first turn the first time disciples is using a book of Mark Those who are following Jesus Matthew Peter James John Andrew Sitting with him and there were many the house is packed out Many people and was it say about the sinners and the tax collectors and they followed him Here we see the heart of the meeting Here we see that what Jesus is after and what Matthew is after There is Various times of false teaching That's kind of that people use this verse to be able to justify a false idea of ministry Okay, so one of those would be like a contagious Christian the idea that you're supposed to Make friendships and have those friendships for extended long period of time in order to win the right to be able to tell them about Jesus In other words, how you go about talking to people about Jesus is that you shouldn't talk about Jesus at first Because I might scare him off you may think you're weird so instead give him to know you and Help him see that you're not weird and then they'll like you and when they like you then you can kind of pull out Jesus at A place that's comfortable for them. You see you can kind of ease it in That kind of teaching is not what Jesus is doing here. Jesus is here For the first time meeting these people and what is he doing? He's helping them to follow him Another type of false understanding of ministry that's you based in this text is you know what? let's go to the nightclubs and Tell people were Jesus were followers of Jesus let's go to the bars and tell people that were father Jesus and They'll begin to see that we're really not that much different than them and Because we're not that much different than them We'll kind of ease them into Christianity. It'll be a short step, you know We don't want to make the step to Christianity so high that they can't get there So instead we'll kind of lower the demands of Christianity and look Jesus hung out with sinners, didn't he? But that's another twisting of this text What is Jesus doing? He's there. He's not going out to where they're sinning and participating in the sin He's pursuing sinners Humbly kindly lovingly, but without compromise. Do you see that a? Right understanding of just reading the details of the text will help you to see what Jesus is doing So then are you doing the same? Are you doing the same? Do you have the same heart as? Matthew and Jesus Do you start with your relationships and your friends and your family? Do you use your house to bring and win others to Christ? This is Christianity 101 What do you think Matthew knows in order to do this just the bare basics just the bare basics This is Christianity 101. You want to follow Christ? Here's the first thing to do Open up your home have a fellowship invite all your friends that don't know Christ and Talk about them around the dinner table. So step back and look at the big picture What do we see here? What's the big picture in verses 13 to 15? Jesus is pursuing and calling those who see their great sin Jesus is purposely pursuing the worst people in society and They're acknowledging that we are sinful people That we don't deserve to follow Jesus Christ. We don't deserve to be saved They admit their sin and So they readily they easily see the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ Like a child caught in a tree with a rushing river underneath them they see the helicopter and easily Recognize their peril and their hope These tax collectors and sinners easily recognize they're in danger of hell and Jesus is the only hope What about you? Are you humble this way? Do you recognize these things? Is this how you look at Jesus Christ? You know I was thinking about this passage this week. I'm like do I still see Jesus this way? Have you lost it? I thought have I lost it? Do I still see Jesus this way? Am I still? Do I still see my sin as? As an offense to God. Do I still have I lost that dependence on him that I had when I was first saved? That Acknowledgement if Jesus doesn't save me that I'm lost to hell Some ways that you can remember that is Think about your inability to be around sinners and be not be unaffected. I Was at work this week, and I'm thinking and there's just like filthy conversation happening And I'm thinking I got to get out of here. I got to get out of here because I Will I'll be affected by this by this thinking? and So I got to leave the room right and in leaving the room. I'm recognizing and remembering Sin is still has the ability to grasp me and pull me into this this hit and Change my thinking and then I'm recognizing once again. Jesus is my only hope Jesus is my only hope What I'm saying to you is Sin around you and the way that it affects you whether it's a what you see on TV Or whether you who you hang out with is an reminder to you that you Continually need a savior to continually help you to follow him You are continually in need of Jesus Christ Are you a humble sinner? We've seen the humble sinners that Jesus goes to in verses 13 to 15 are you? One of the proud sinners we see Jesus now speak to the proud sinners in verses 16 to 17 Verse 16 and when the scribes in the Pharisees saw him eating with the tax collectors and sinners They said to his disciples How is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners? So in our story the the dinner that's going on is a public in nature It's kind of like if you were to open up your garage door And you were to have all the bit the dinner in the garage door and then people in the community would walk by and There's much more of an idea of community like a lot of in If you go to a lot of communities in the US people Drive into their they open they drive up to their house And they push a little button in their car and the garage door opens and they enter in like a Jetsons thing And then they don't they don't hang outside people in the neighborhood don't know each other Often where there's more money. It's more like this. Okay, I'm making generalizations And you can see some in different cultural backgrounds in the community How it's like that too Depending on your culture or background, but other cultures and other backgrounds people hang out outside all the time The neighbors know each other. They sit outside. They wave to each other It's easier to talk to people outside Some of you may have recognized this going door-to-door and going in different communities with different cultures You'll see the different results here in a Jewish culture. They're very open very open Talking with one another outside. They don't have the little garage door thing that the dinner that's going on is open So people are coming by crowds are coming by people are following Jesus people want to know where Jesus is The word gets around he's in in the house of tax collectors that gets the ear of some people Who is it that gets the ear of who begins to say let's let's go check this out somebody who? puts on their their nice clothes They get their good Bible the scroll and they say let's go check this out This could be important Here is a group of sinners, but they are prideful sinners They're arrogant sinners. They don't see their their need For him the scribes and the Pharisees saw him eating with the tax collectors and sinners you see that in verse 16 The scribes of the Pharisees are as a particular division of Bible teachers They believe in a lot of orthodox things they believe in the resurrection They believe in that the Bible is inspired they believe a lot of good things and They come up to Jesus Christ now they come up to Jesus Christ and There's an assumption here That they are a self-righteous Because they're offended at what Jesus is doing. They're offended at what he's doing Look at the way they asked the question How is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners? You know you can ask a question and it not be really a question What's the big idea? What kind of gall have you got? You see how those aren't questions They're accusations. What are they saying here? First they come to this his disciples. They don't come to Jesus here. The snake comes slithering in and The snake doesn't come up right to Jesus and said they find somebody it's easy to complain to Somebody else about a third person Right It's easy for me to come to Jobe complain about Tyler Because Jobe won't fight me like Tyler was he won't he won't debate me. He won't reason with me It's an easy listening ear. So here they come The Pharisees and they pull aside some of the disciples And they say them I've got something a complaint. What is Jesus doing? What are you doing? Eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners The people here this is the Pharisees and tax collectors. They don't see their own sin If they saw their own sin, then they and saw how much they deserve hell Then they'd be ready to help others then they'd be ready to be merciful to others They have all their theological eyes dotted and all their teas crossed But they've forgotten how to spell grace They worked a lot on those eyes and those teas But how to spell grace? I can't remember They come because of their pride They're so arrogant and prideful. They think they deserve to be with God, but these others don't test your heart test your heart When you see what the evil is happening even in our city, right? Or with Orlando strong instead of being Orlando humble. We have Orlando strong instead of being Orlando, let's repent of our evil and our homosexuality. We have let's celebrate homosexuality you as a Christian when you see that Do you Respond with only anger. There's something right about being having a right anger But do you only respond with disgust and anger? or do you respond with a combo of Righteous anger, but that it still leads you to be able to have a heart to go after them a Heart of compassion to pursue them the ability to explain the gospel to them To bring the light of Jesus Christ to them Look the danger for a verse 16 is Is going to be here We believe the Bible We're the ones who hold to the Bible and teach the Bible The danger to be have a hatred for sinners and have be cold towards them is a danger that we have here So where's your heart? Where's your heart towards this if you understand your breast desperate need that you understand and Have compassion for others Look here and now in verse 17 When Jesus heard it He said to them those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance in our story Jesus is around laying around Relaxing telling about the gospel with those who want to follow him and something catches his ear an argument a fight and is as if he stands up and Authoritatively he says out with a loud voice to interrupt the conversation and to say Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those that are sick. I Did not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance You see the crowd there around him stop and look now. This is the most important part of the service This is the most important part of the text Do you see verse 17? Do you understand it? This is the most important part. Don't miss this Jesus himself is Instructing us and teaching us There's a particular blessing when Jesus himself explains salvation That there's a great clarity a great beauty and a great joy to understand when Jesus himself explains What does he say? He says those who are well have no new need of a physician, but those that are sick Here's a truth. Here's a truth that we all know People that are healthy don't go to the doctor But people that are sick This is something that a little kid knows Since you know this truth since you know this shouldn't you know the greater truth? You give me Jesus is saying Everybody knows this everybody knows If there was only healthy people doctors who run out of work to do Everybody knows that Sick people go to the doctor Okay, then Jesus is saying I am the doctor. I am the physician Jesus is saying That it is a dangerous Spot to be in where you think you are well As long as you believe this delusion you will never be saved You understand that you could come to church and you can believe oh, yes I'm a sinner for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God It's easy to be able to acknowledge. Oh, yeah, I'm a sinner It's difficult to be able to acknowledge that you're such a sinner to the depth of depravity That you're you're unable to save yourself that you have nothing good in yourself That is rare that is rare to be able to admit There once was a farmer who was gonna have a wedding for his daughter He loved that daughter his only daughter loved her so much He looked forward to the wedding and the wedding feast and like many farmers do they have the wedding ceremony and the Outdoors under a canopy and they're gonna have the wedding feast outdoors And as they get on their best clothes and he sees his only daughter Getting ready to get ready and then people are getting he's getting ready one of his pigs Come strolling in right out of the manure right out of the mire right out of the muck Completely filthy and his pig comes strolling into the wedding ceremony How does the farmer look at the pig? he says that pig and the pig comes running over and Begins to bump into his daughter and brine and on her dress Well, I tell you how did the end the story end? The pig did come to the wedding But he came to the wedding feast Well, this is the point the pig thought he was something that he wasn't the pig thought he was something that he was wasn't He wasn't welcome at the feast Here's what happens if you're a self-righteous sinner and you're trying to show up to heaven You're not gonna get it. Do you see? How sick you are How sick are you? Acknowledge your sin Acknowledge your need for him Plead with God that he would burn away self-righteousness out of your heart That he would be gracious to you it is a grace of God to understand your sin Many die of cancer every year because they won't be diagnosed They won't go to the doctor and they die before it's too late. What about you? The gospel is not for those who believe themselves to be basically good Jesus didn't come for you if you believe that you are basically good Jesus says what he came for in the verse 17. He said in the middle of verse 17. He says I did not come When Jesus says why he came or his purpose, that's something to really glue your eyes to that's something to really take note of Why did Jesus come? Why does he come? He says I did not come. So what purpose did he come for? He came to not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Luke is what the gospel that Helps us understand that this is what Jesus said about calling to repentance This clear important truth is what Jesus is for and that's what the church is here for now Here for this call So when the homosexual comes Call them to repentance when the diseased person comes when the the adulterer comes when the liar comes When the cheat comes when the person that you would want to distance yourself from Comes you call them to repentance you see them and have mercy upon him Jesus is making you choose between him and your self-righteousness You cannot have both This is so difficult for us to remind ourselves of and to see it only happens by a work of God In Luke 4 we see that light is for the blind Freedom is for the those that are bound Healing is for the broken-hearted and liberty is for the captives. So will you admit you're a captive and Christ will give you liberty. Do you admit that? You're broken-hearted and you need healing Do you admit that your sins have bound you and Christ will give you freedom? Do you admit that your sin has blinded you and he will give you light This scripture reveals who Jesus is as he is the great physician. He's the great doctor He's the glorious one who comes searching for sick sinners How does this doctor save? Let me take you to this doctor's office Walk with me now to the doctor's office of Jesus Christ look in Isaiah 53 to close How does this doctor work? How does he take away sin? Isaiah 53 3 He was despised and rejected by men here speaking of Jesus a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and We hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet. We esteemed him stricken Submitted smitten by God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities that chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes We are healed all we like sheep have gone astray We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all Look at in verse 5 by his stripes, and we are healed Here Jesus the doctor of souls Speaks about a healing that is not physical in nature, but spiritual. How would you know that? the context Look in verse 5 wounded for transgressions bruised for iniquities Chastisement or punishment was upon him for our peace and so now His stripes were healed is by by the Jewish parallelism this Jewish figure of speech We see that this is talking about a healing that is of our sin How does it happen? How does it happen when we are all like sheep on astray? Because God lays on him the iniquity of us all How is it that Matthew? this sinner of Great Magnitude and degree. How is it that right now he's in heaven? In all of the cheats and all the lies and all the sexual immorality and all the friends that he has with prostitutes and criminals and all the drunkenness How is it that he's able to praise God in heaven now? Because the Lord Jesus Christ himself took every one of Matthew's sins on the cross Matthew had gone astray But Jesus Christ took all his sin upon him and as he died on the cross Jesus bore all the wrath of God that should have been given to Matthew and I pray that today You would not be a self-righteous sinner, but you would be one humbled Humble to the point where you see once again There your desperate need for Jesus Christ to be the doctor for your soul and Here all of your sin is going to be laid on him at the cross That is how the good physician heals He does not come to heal those who are well, but those that are sick. So I ask you how Sick are you? How sick are you? Let's pray Dear God we pray now Help us Lord as a people to be able to recognize and See our sin so that we might see your beauty so that we may understand your salvation Lord help us to be humbled and Help us to love you help us to put our faith in you and to trust you What I pray That your word would change us Lord, please help us to repent and follow you. Amen