Who is Standing In Front Of You? Potential!
1 Samuel 16:6-12 Mark 2:13-17
What do you see when you look at another person? How do you sum them up? When the prophet Samuel went to choose a new king for Israel, he assumed that the new king ought to look like the old king.
The current king, King Saul had been a head taller than anyone else. When God told Samuel to go anoint one of Jesse’s sons as the next king, the moment he saw Jesse’s oldest son, who was tall and good looking, Samuel said, “surely the Lord’s anointed stands before the Lord.”
But Samuel was wrong. God said to him “This is not the one. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Samuel went through all of Jesse’s sons and all were rejected.
Samuel asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” Jesse did have one more son, but Jesse had already made up his mind, no way could my youngest son measure up to one day become a king. The best I can see for David is that he might one day become a good shepherd. Yet when they finally went and got David, the Lord responded by saying, “Rise and anoint him.” How often have we rejected the Lord’s anointed because they did not look the way we had thought they should?
Has anyone ever looked at you and dismissed you because of their undervaluing who you were and what you could possibly do? I can remember back in 4th grade at Bryant School in Hornell NY. I was the only black kid in the class, and I was new to the school and had not made many friends.
We would play softball during recess and the captain would line up people in the batting order based on friendship and what they thought the person could do. I was always put at the end of the line. By the time it was my time to get up to bat, recess was over and I wouldn’t get a chance to try to hit the ball.
One day at recess, there was a black fifth grader whose family moved to town. They must have been migrant workers because the kid was not there long at the school. This black kid, took and put me 4th in line in the batting order.
I still remember I hitting that ball over the outfielder’s head. The other kids were shocked. I never got placed at the end of the line during recess again even after that black kid was gone. I learned that my ability did not have to be limited by what others thought I could do or become.
There is this amazing statement in the bible made by Jesus that I think we often fail to understand. Jesus said, “you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit.” Have you ever thought about why did Jesus choose you? What did Jesus see when he looked at you long before you gave your life to him? What does Jesus see when He looks at you today?
Last week, in Mark chapter 2, you looked at a man whose four friends brought him to Jesus in order that he might be healed. The man had been unable to walk and was paralyzed. The man’s friends looked at him and they saw a man who needed to be healed of paralysis. But Jesus looked at the same man, and saw a person who needed to know that his sins had been forgiven. Jesus first announced to the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
But when Jesus’ statement caused an uproar with the religious leaders because they considered his words to be blasphemy. They cried out “How dare Jesus claim to be able to forgive sins. No one could do that but God”.
Jesus then changed the nature of the discussion by saying to the man, “Take up your mat and go home.” The man got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of everyone. People were amazed at this and they praised God saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”
Jesus saw something in that man, that most of the people there did not see. It would be interesting to have had Mark tell us what happened to this man after this healing took place, but he doesn’t. But I doubt if he went back to the life that he once knew.
After this event the scriptures tell us in Mark 2:13, “Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him and he began to teach them.” No doubt the lake is the sea of Galilee. Jesus had no problems preaching and teaching indifferent venues.
He taught in the synagogue buildings, on the seashore, in houses, in boats, and on mountainsides. It’s interesting that churches advertise, come dressed as you are, and think they’ve discovered something new. Jesus was telling people, “come dressed as you are some 2000 years ago.”
After the teaching Session was over, Jesus starts to take a walk. He approaches this high elevated stand which could easily be seen from different directions. This was intentional because it was the tax collector’s booth. If you were doing trading business on the lake or passing through the area selling something, you were to go and pay your sales taxes at the tax collector’s booth. The city of Capernaum was a customs post.
The tax booth was also the local Roman Internal Revenue Service place to pay your taxes. Rome knew that collecting taxes in their many provinces was best done by the locals who knew the people. Tax collectors were hired through a bidding process. Whoever promised to bring in the most money got the job. Tax collectors were then to get a commission however many tax collectors chose to charge the people what they wanted to charge them and could get away with.
The Jewish people saw Rome as an occupying nation, and they resented the Romans and anyone working on their behalf. Now if you were Jewish, being a tax collector could be a very lucrative job and lead to a lot of wealth. After all you got to determine the size of your paycheck.
But if you pursued your dream, you would be giving up part of your cultural heritage and family. You would be excommunicated from the synagogue. You would be shamed by you family and friends.
You were considered a person who valued money over reputation, respectability, and purity before God. You were basically a traitor to your own people who had to pay extremely high taxes to this foreign power controlling their lives.
Jesus had probably passed by this elevated tax booth many times since he had made Capernaum his home base of operations. He may have even paid taxes at this booth himself. The word of who Jesus was and what he had done had spread all over the area by word of mouth.
Keep in mind that John the Baptist had already spread the word about Jesus and his coming. Luke’s gospel let us know that tax collectors had come to John to be baptized, and when they asked him, what should we do? He told them don’t collect any more than you are required to collect. In other words, stop cheating people. So there is a knowledge about Jesus among tax collectors.
Levi was in charge of this tax collector station in Capernaum. No doubt there were Roman soldiers there to protect him and the money that was being collected as it piled up. Levi probably kept excellent records and accounts.
On this particular day, Levi probably got up and went to work thinking it was just going to be another day of bargaining, being accused of overcharging, and listening to sob stories about how they needed a little more time to pay their taxes. Even though the job paid well, it had its share of headaches like all jobs do.
So there was Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector’s booth. He no doubt had heard about Jesus, and probably had seen Jesus as Jesus passed up and down the lake. Imagine his surprise, when he said, “Next” and he looked up from his last entry and there stands Jesus of Nazereth.
The guy who just a few days ago forgave a man his sins and healed him of paralysis. How do you think Levi felt? What do you think he might have wanted to say to Jesus? If Jesus walked up to you and you knew you were doing something you should be ashamed of what would be your reaction if you looked up and saw it was him?
Jesus didn’t say to him,” how dare you cheat people? How dare you turn your back on your family and friends? How dare you do continue on in this lifestyle? ”
You know when Jesus sees us in a place we ought not to be, he doesn’t try to make us feel guilty, embarrassed, humiliated or ashamed. He looks at us with eyes of compassion with a view to the future of what we can become in Him. Some of us know we are where we should not be, but don’t know how to leave it. The answer is found in Jesus’ words to Levi.
Jesus breaks the ice as Levi looks at him speechless. Jesus says “Follow Me.” Jesus uses a greek tense of the verb follow, which lets Levi know that Jesus isn’t issuing him an invitation to consider weighing his options. Jesus isn’t saying, I know things are not working out like you planned so when you close up shop tonight check me out at Peter’s house on Main Street.
No Jesus use a tense of the verb that is a command to do something. It’s like when a person is drowning and you throw out a life life and you say, “Grab The life-line.” You are not offering the life-line as a suggestion to consider by the person drowning. You are offering them there only way out of their predicament. You want them to do it and to do it now.
Levi understood exactly what Jesus was saying. He knew that Jesus was asking for a commitment that would require him to leave his place of security, leave his dream for more wealth, and leave behind a lifestyle that wasn’t doing for him what he thought it was going to do.
My friends you can’t take everything with you if you choose to follow Christ. Jesus makes some strong demands upon our lives. But remember the price Jesus paid to offer you what he’s offering you. The hope that Jesus gives us cost him his life
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Levi did not try to bargain with Jesus over the conditions needed to follow him. The Scriptures says, that “Levi got up and followed Him.” Levi realized that Jesus was not inviting him but calling him.
How many of us want that said about us. We got up and followed Jesus? What circumstance do you have in your life right now in which you know, you just need to get up and follow Jesus out of it.
Don’t make any excuses, don’t try blaming anyone, just do what Levi did which was got up and followed Jesus. Jesus has a calling on your life for a purpose you may not understand.
Do your realize what Levi is actually doing? He’s turning his back on the Roman government. Could he get in trouble for that? Probably. He’s losing the protection of the Roman guards against people who thought he may have cheated them and want to get revenge. Could that be dangerous? Probably. He didn't give two weeks notice. Could they hurt his resume. Maybe.
Jesus didn’t tell him where he was going, could he be giving up the comfortable lifestyle he’s had. Most definitely. Jesus never said “If we follow him we will get all our hopes and dreams.” Jesus said, “Follow Me.”
The first place Jesus took Levi was to Levi’s own house. Levi put on a dinner at his house and invited many other tax collectors and sinners to come to the dinner. Here Jesus is with his disciples eating with a bunch of tax collectors and sinners. No doubt some people spread the rumor that Jesus had sold out to the Romans and decided to become a tax collector.
Word got out so fast that even people who were not invited to the party showed up. The Pharisees came down to see for themselves if this was true. Some had no doubt wanted to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt, but if this man was actually seen eating and partying with the wrong kind of people especially tax collectors, then he could not be of God.
What’s really going on here. Jesus knew that Levi could get him a group of people together, that were not going to go to the synagogue or church or even to show up at the lake to hear his message. Levi brought him an audience of people who could see for themselves the truth they had heard about Jesus. Jesus had the opportunity to preach to this group.
They could see that Jesus came offering hope and life to all people, regardless of their background or what they were caught up it in. Jesus was not ashamed to be seen with them because he saw them for what they could be in God.
When the Pharisees arrived on the scene uninvited, they wanted to know from Jesus’s disciples, how could Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees saw the people for who they were at the moment. Jesus is always looking at people for whom they can become in him.
The Pharisees looked at Levi, son of Alpheus as nothing more than a greedy tax collector. Jesus looked at him and saw one of the 12 apostles. Jesus saw the person who would write a very detailed account of Jesus’ life in the gospel of Matthew. When Levi got up and followed Jesus, he commenced on a journey that would be touching lives 2000 years later through his detail account of Matthew’s Gospel.
Your life counts for more than you think in the kingdom of God. God knew exactly what He was done when He created you, and Jesus knew exactly what He was doing when He chose you. But His call on our lives is not a one time event. It comes to us on a daily basis.
The answer that was given to the Pharisees on why Jesus was involved with the people he was involved with was given by Jesus himself when he said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
One of the tragic mistakes that many believers make is the idea, once I’ve given my life to Christ I have now become righteous. Yes you are righteous in the sense you stand blameless before God if you were to die to day and had to give an account for your sins. The righteousness Christ has you covered. But the righteousness of Christ needs to be applied daily if we are to stay healthy believers.
Jesus is in contact most with those of us who realize we are still sick and in need of the grace of God. It’s amazing how sometimes the last person to realize we are sick spiritually is ourselves. We will make all kinds of excuses for our behaviors that are not Christlike and for those areas we still need to submit to the authority of Christ.
We may see ourselves as walking tall in the Lord, when Christ sees that we need to humble ourselves and either apologize or ask others for their forgiveness. Sometimes Christ sees that we simply need to repent. It’s not an easy thing to be a Levi, who simply gets up and follows Jesus.
Before Jesus died on the cross and was raised 3 days later, Jesus promised to give us the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job not only to show us when we are wrong, but to give us the strength to overcome our sins and weaknesses. Because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is being made available to raise us up from our situation.
When you look in the mirror check and see if you are becoming what God wants you to be my showing more and more of these fruits. . Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV2011) 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Jesus already sees these things in you. Work out your salvation so that others can see them as well.
I heard John Maxwell quote someone saying, "You are under no obligation to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago." My friend, Jesus can change anyone in 5 minutes. Because Jesus sees what we can become.
This sermon is about the potential God sees in us when God created us and the potential Christ sees in us when He calls us. Jesus has a plan for all of his children.
