Engagement or Exclusion? Mark 2.13-17
We see here the beginings of conflict with the Pharisees. It is an underlying theme set right through the gospel; Between the Pharisees and Jesus over the character of God and forgiveness.
The four stories that follow continue this theme: Eating with tax collectors and sinners 13-17, questioned about fasting 18-22, Picking wheat on the Sabbath 23-28 and healing on the Sabbath 3.1-6. Here the main emphasis is upon Jesus as the one who engages with sinners in contrast to the Pharisees who exclude sinners.
1) Jesus’s engages Levi to follow. v14
a) His call is effectual. The psalmist tells us the voice of the lord is powerful.
The voice of creation is the voice of the new creation the one who as power over all!
We have witnessed this powerful voice already through the early stages of Mark: He has called people to repent and believe the good news 1:15
He called s the fisherman to follow him V17
He called demons to come out of a man V25.
He exercised those in the crowds of demons 1v34
He granted forgiveness to a paralyzed man 2v5.
Why Levi? God’s sovereign choice Rom.8: 28 -30 Predestined call Rom.9:;12 which is an engaging call.
b) His engaging call is to the most unlikely
Loathed by others
Here we have Levi working on the shores of Capernaum in his official capacity a tax collector, loathed by his fellow countryman for working with the Romans and being unscrupulous in his dealings with fellow Jews it was common knowledge that they ripped people of in regard to the tax
It reminds me of the conservative politician Jonathan Atkin. who was busted for purgery and loathed and ostrisced by fellow politicians. Sentenced to prison but had a quiet conversion prior to going inside.
Maybe excluded by others but engaged by God.
Levi was loved by God
We can draw from this is that no matter what your background, no matter how low in sin you go. No matter how dis-liked you are by people there is …..
Rom.5: 20 where sin increased, grace increased all the more.
Grace has no bounds!
Grace can transform anybody at anytime: from the homosexual who is in a wrong relationship to the heterosexual who is deep in adultery from the corrupted politician to the drug addicted musician, from the hypocritical family member to the skeptic who has no faith.
God can save anybody, He saved you why not others?
c) His call is to service often with the gifts you have.
He also takes hold of a life and brings about a greater purpose for it, which is ultimately to bring glory to God through your life. Here we see the wonderful conversion and calling of Levi the tax collector, whom becomes known as Matthew one of the twelve apostles. He take hold of those gifts which he had of record keeping and uses them for the greater purpose of writing a Gospel.
Where has God gifted you to serve him for his great purpose.
In music, In computers, with children, in writing, practical skills, communicating with others, financial skills, encouraging, caring and so on..
2) Levi responds by engaging others.
Firstly we see that Levi has a transformed heart he leaves the past behind its history (its over) and his desire is now for the future.
Have you had this encounter with Jesus have you responded like Levi?
a) He invites his associates to hear Jesus.v15
Instead of collecting money for Caesar he is gathering in people for King Jesus. Inviting others to experience what he has experienced in meeting Jesus.
If you have had a genuine encounter with Jesus you cant help talking about Jesus to others. Maybe that’s you, cant help speaking about Jesus and at times you have probably said too much. Don’t be embarrassed or ashamed of the fact. If you have been it shows how much you really love him and where your heart really is!
Remember Jonathan Atkin the consservative MP busted for purgery? Whilst he was inside prison he began to witness to the most unsavory characters. He would read and write letters for those that could not read and write and he began prayer meetings inside and a group was formed and a work of God began through him, as he engaged the most unsavory characters imaginable a number came to trust in Christ.
George Whitfield once said about true grace…. "True grace will not be content eating mere morsal but will want to bring others to feast on the delights that are ours in Christ Jesus."
Levi is also a challenge towards those of us who have never spoken about Jesus with others, spoken about the weather, sport, holidays the garden fashion but not about Jesus. When was the last time you spoke about Jesus?
The Titanic’s Last Hero
The most famous ship of all time is possibly the Titanic, the supposedly unsinkable ship that went down on its maiden voyage. Many movies have been made and many books written about the fateful journey. Few will include the story of Scottish evangelist John Harper. Harper was a passenger on the Titanic.
In 1912 Harper was travelling to Chicago to take up his new appointment as Pastor of Moody Church. He had his daughter Nana on board with him. His wife had died a few years earlier. When the Titanic struck the iceberg and began to sink he put Nana into a lifeboat and then ran throughout the ship yelling "Women, children, and unsaved into the lifeboats!" When the ship finally went down he had already given his lifejacket to another passenger. Survivors report that to the very end Harper was witnessing to anyone who would listen. One survivor recalls clinging to one of the ships spars when Harper floated near him. "Man, are you saved?" cried Harper. "No I’m not" replied the man. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved" pleaded Harper. The waves carried Harper away and brought him back a little later. "Are you saved now?" asks Harper. "No, I cannot honestly say that I am" says the man. Again Harper pleads with him, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved". Shortly afterward Harper went down. The man who survived was one of only six people rescued, but in a public meeting four years later, recounting this episode he said "There, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert."
Source: Reported by Elesha Coffman, Christianity Today, August 7,200. The story is told in The Titanic’s Last Hero (Moody Press, 1997)
Levi opens up his home to Jesus and others v15
We see that Levi really uses his initiative, he doesn’t run around like a headless chicken to tell everybody but he creates an environment where it is suitable for others to meet Jesus in his home. He offers up the gift of hospitality and holds an evangelistic meal.
The invitation has gone out
His house is full of his fellow tax collectors and sinners people just like him.
Levi’s heartbeat is now the same as Jesus who came to seek and to save the lost. He wants others to experience the same life-changing encounter, Levi has the foresight to open up his home and lay on a banquet (Luke.5;29)
Here we see another gift in Levi, his evangelistic strategy of holding a banquet he invites others to meet with Jesus through a meal. Levi no longer sees the natural banquet he has laid on, but is heart is opened to the spiritual banquet that is before Jesus. He sees the opportunities as immense for the kingdom of God.
The sizzler talks with BBQ that we are holding is a real opportunity for us all to engage and invite our community. Thats the real challange, will it be engagement or extinction? Is it your desire to be like Levi to bring others?
3) The Pharisees call us to exclusion v16.
The Pharisees were the descendants of a spiritual group called the Hasidim (faithful) had come to stand for the devotion to the law especially when two centuries before Christ Greek philosophical and religious ideas was making inroads. They were a minority group but held that keeping the law was a religious duty and the law could be adapted to the everyday situations of life.
They determined that the law contained 613 commandments (248 positive 365 negative)
Secondary laws
These laws were fulfilled by setting a hedge of secondary laws around them, which would protect the faithful from falling into sin. Therefore to be a Pharisee would mean a radical separation and a life governed by do’s and don’ts.
Case in question
One of those on the list was not to buy food or eat food from somebody who was not a Pharisee in case the food had not been tithed which would break a fundamental principle of the law.
Here they witness Jesus breaking that law and eating with tax collectors and sinners.
On May 2000 Mr.Kevin storey, was driving down the M3 from Poole to Winchester He was pulled up by the traffic police he was doing 68mph in 50mph zone. However the officer was not intrested in his speeding but more interested in the Kit Kat he had been eating whilst driving. He explained it was a serious hazard even though his wife had opened it – it was a potential distraction- He was cautioned and issued a £20 on the spot fine – although later withdrawn on appeal. Legalism focuses on minor faults, blows them out of all proportion.
Beware of a critical spirit of others who don’t quite fit into your Christian expectations or traditions. Jesus would never have fitted into our expectations as a Church he doesnt fit into their expectations. He is reaching out in a more radical way, he is mixing with sinners communicating in their language, unlike the Pharisees who would be totally disengaged. and excluding others.
3) Jesus engages them with a two-point lesson on the character of God. V17
a) Rebuking there misdirected zeal
These Pharisees were very zealous, in regard to the glory of God and for moral purity, Jesus even tells us that some of them were not far from the kingdom of God. But sadly the zeal they demonstrated was misdirected.
They had misunderstood the character of God: His glory and His moral purity had not led God to be distant and removed but had caused him to visit his sin diseased people and pour out his grace upon them time and time again through history.
If the Pharisees were real anxious to see men and women to become more holy then there separation should of led them to a loving commitment to others to show them Gods way.
True holiness: We need to remember that Gods holiness drove him to come down into this sin sick world and live in it and demonstrated his love towards others.
b) Exposing their false holiness.
Their law keeping and their traditions expressed their so-called holiness. They had got a false holiness, which had made them critical of others, because it wasn’t done, how they expected it! Jesus was saying to them that the holiness, which has its bedrock in criticism towards others and not caring for them, was not the kind of holiness that God wants or Jesus exhibits.
ustration: A surgeon before he operates on the diseased patient will scrub up! Why is he so particular about being clean? In order to help those who are diseased. He doesnt distance himself.
Jesus says that true holiness is like that, its not contaminated by eating with them or mixing with sinners, rather it seeks to make them whole and holy. While engaging them with a holy life which is filled with a loving compassion for the lost.
Who are we like? The Pharisees - Excluding or like Jesus - engaging
As we look around ourselves isn’t it true to say we’ve been disengaged as a Church? What is the demographic age in this Church last year? What is it now? Where are the young people where are the families? This Church has been disengaged for to long it needs retrieve the heartbeat of Jesus!
Engagement or Extinction?
The Church in so many parts of this country is facing extinction, it will soon become a pre historic dinosaur. A huge paradigm shift has taken place and many of us have been left behind our services have become irrelevant to people.
Ask the average person in the street: Why don’t you come to Church? Church is not engaging, its not relavent? Yet we have the most relavent message on the planet!
To be engaging: We need to become like Jesus engaging our culture.
In other parts of the Church where there is engagement literally 1000s of people are coming to Christ and worshipping God.
Hillsong community Church in Australia have 4 services on a Sunday with over 3000 people attending each service.
Willow Creek Baptist Church in California has over 10,000 attending each Sunday.
Hillsong community Church in London has 3,500 attending in its first year .
"Its not that numbers count but that people count every single one of them and if we dont engage its saying they dont count and we dont care."
The Kings centre in Wigston is a community centre which is used by national organisations like give Blood, it has a children’s nursery, a Jakin centre, community centre and from a small Church plant is today flourishing because they are engaging the community!
Whetstone Baptist Church has two mornings services reaching over 200 people.
Sutton in the Elms Baptist Church has seen huge growth. Why are these meetings flourishing? Because they are prepared to change to engage the, culture they are put in!
What happens here is dependent upon how much each one of us is prepared to change our attitudes and mindsets on how things are done and should be done (taking away our Pharisee tendencies ) We need to take our purposes as a Church very seriously and apply them to the whole of our personal and Church life.
Engagement or exclusion with exclusion comes extinction: The next generation need to be reached?
1. Our evangelism needs to be engaging the culture:
2. Our worship needs to be a vibrant encounter with God:
2. Our ministry needs to be broader:
3. Our discipleship to be deeper:
4. Our fellowship needs to have a genuine love
What will it be for us at CBC? It’s in your hands, will it be relevant engagement like Jesus or exclusion like the Pharisees?
