Ministry Methods Questioned

Ministry Methods Questioned (part 1)

Mark 2:13-18

Good Morning,

Dr. Kent Keith said in the paradoxical commandments, “People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.”

Please open your Bible to the Gospel of Mark 2 as we continue in the verse by verse study of that Gospel.

Last week we spoke on the most important miracle Jesus performs; but, He was accused of blasphemy for that healing.

Jesus returned to Capernaum and immediately, the crowds came to find Jesus and “He preached the Word to them.”

Then four men brought their friend to Jesus, but there was such a big crowd there, they could not get near Jesus.

The men climb to the roof, made a hole in it and lowered their friend down to Jesus. These men believed that Jesus could heal their friend and they wouldn’t stop until Jesus did just that.

However, instead of merely healing the paralytic with words, Jesus first told the man his sins were forgiven.

These men showed faith in Jesus to heal their friend; because if they didn’t think Jesus would heal their friend, they would have had to lift him and his mat, back up through the roof.

We learned that the religious leaders were not interested in the faith of these men bringing their friend to Jesus.

The Scribes were concerned with rule keeping; not with the man being healed or forgiven of his sins.

Finally, we learned how all of the people were amazed and glorified the Lord. The word, “amazed” means, “These people were totally blown away by this miracle.”

The Lord leads, guides, and directs. We simply follow and obey

The Westminster shorter catechism says, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

This all starts with a relationship with Jesus who forgives our sin

This morning, is part one of a two part series, where we will see Jesus questioned about His method of ministry.

I. Public enemy number one.

Read Mark 2:13-14

Jesus again hits the road and notice the crowds came to Him and again, Jesus began to teach the crowd.

Levi is another name for Matthew, which we know was the man who wrote the first Gospel in our New Testament; in fact Matthew 9 is a parallel writing to this account in Mark 2.

Both Levi and Matthew are Hebrew names.

Matthew means gift of God and the name Levi of course comes from the tribe of Levi in the Old Testament; someone had to be from the Tribe of Levi in order to be a priest in Israel.

Matthew was a Hebrew man with a lot of knowledge of the Old Testament. In the Gospel of Matthew there are 99 Old Testament quotes; more than the other three gospels.

So here is this Jewish man, who knew the Old Testament scripture and prophecies well; but, he is a tax collector.

There were two kinds of tax collectors at this time; one who would collect property or income taxes, like the IRS or county tax office. These men were hated by the people…but

There was a second type of tax collector, who was hated even more, because of the dishonesty used, while collecting taxes.

Herod Antipas was appointed by Rome to rule over the region of Galilee and he had to pay Rome a certain tribute tax every year.

Herod would hire this second kind of tax collector, charge him a fee in order to get the job; and then the tax collector would charge extra taxes in order to make a nice living off of the job.

These tax collectors had to collect the minimum taxes Herod was obligated to send to Rome; but, they were also permitted to keep any money they could extort from the people.

We first meet Levi/Matthew as he was sitting at the tax office/booth and he is the second kind of tax collector for Herod.

This Jewish man collected taxes for the pagan Roman Empire that now ruled over Israel; Israel is the Promise Land God had originally promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

William Lane said, “When a Jew entered the customs service he was regarded as an outcast from society:

“He was disqualified as a judge or a witness in a court session; was excommunicated from the synagogue, and in the eyes of the community his disgrace extended to his family.” (William Lane)