Who, Me? — Jesus, and the Call to Leave Everything

Hey, I had thought this week, and I don't know if you've ever wondered about this. Have you ever wondered what Jesus would be like if he was a pastor today in a modern Western church? Like, I want you to think about that for a second. What would Jesus be like if he was the pastor of a church, the west in America today? One of my thoughts this week was it would be amazing because he would be a much better pastor than your pastor.

Absolutely. Like, I would go, it's yours. Let me get out of the way. But I was also thinking about this, how I'm not sure how people would receive Jesus as a pastor today in a church here in the West. I don't know if people would like it.

I don't know if it would be the biggest church in town or if it would be the smallest church in town. If Jesus was pastoring a church in our town, I don't know how people would receive him. Because there are some obvious problems. You know, for one, when you read the Gospels, Jesus was always going to places that church people go, hey, you really shouldn't be hanging out there. Jesus and he would spend time with the wrong sort of people.

And religious people didn't like it then, and I think probably religious people wouldn't like it now. And they'd say, he's in the wrong places with the wrong people all the time. And I was thinking about how he taught and certainly he's not going to get you out for luncheon time. Like, you're going to be here all day long. And if you're lucky, you'll have compassion and he'll do like miracles of food and you'll all get full at the end of the day and be great.

But it's not linear and it's not a TED Talk. And it's not like three points that rhyme. It's not going to be that when Jesus is teaching. His disciples went to him once and said, jesus, when you teach, why do you always tell these complex stories? And the implication is, maybe you should just tell them what you want them to do.

Jesus. And Jesus said, that's not what I'm doing right now. But when he did tell people exactly what he wanted them to do, think about it. It was like, you need to lay down your life to find your life. You know, you gotta hate your mother, hate your brother, leave everything behind and follow me.

And you're like, say less, Jesus. You know, I like the stories. Let's go back to story time. That was nice. When Jesus was on this Mission trip to Earth.

He was such a controversial figure and the reaction to him was so mixed, some people murdered him and other people were willing to be murdered just to stand up for his name. I want you to grab your Bible, turn to Luke 5. Today I want to talk to you about the ministry of Jesus, what it really looked like and what he was really doing and those people who might miss the ministry of Jesus. Today we're going to talk about the ministry of Jesus and those who might miss it in Luke chapter five. Now I'll tell you a story.

In March of 2016, then President Obama had a state dinner for the Canadian Prime Minister. And at the state dinner, all of the usual people were invited. They were philanthropists and, and there were business leaders, there were celebrities, movie stars, there were all kinds of politicians and people at this dinner. And on the guest list also was a woman named Twyla Legree and her husband Mark. There's a picture of Twyla and her husband Mark.

And Twyla had written a letter to the President because he had given an address in which he encouraged adults, we'll say, who have maybe grayer hair than browner hair or blonder hair, grayer hair, to go back to college if they hadn't done so and, and finish those degrees. And she heard that and was inspired and she re enrolled in college that she left behind a long time ago and was working on completing her degree. So she wrote him a letter of thanks for inspiring me. And it happened to be a letter that out of a stack one day he grabbed with his own hand and he opened it and he read it and he wrote a letter back to her thanking her for her letter and inviting her to be a guest of his at the state dinner. And so sitting between a US Senator and the Secretary of the treasury is Twyla and her husband Mark.

And you can imagine the scene as they're coming in and reporters are clocking all of the celebrities and all of the known faces walking in. We know who this person is and who that is. But when they walked in, there's just absolute confusion. Who is this woman and who is this man and why are they invited to this table and this dinner at the White House? And so they're doing their research as quick as possible.

And what they discovered is it's just nobody from nowhere. And they're like, how can this woman who is nobody be sitting at this table? And that's exactly the sentiment in our text today. There are a group of people who are invited to come to the table. And there are another group of people who just don't understand how nobody's become somebody's.

And so that's where we are in Luke chapter five. We've been here for a couple of weeks and now we're in verse 27. I want you to see this. It says after that. After what?

All the things you learned last week and the week before. After that, he went out. Jesus went out and he noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. And Levi left.

What's it say? He left what? He left everything behind. Hold on to that. And he got up and he began to follow Jesus.

So one of the first people we've learned of, a couple of others, but one of the first people that Jesus invited deeper into his ministry, deeper into his. His life and into friendship with Jesus, one of the first people that he invited in that he would put much trust in as he would hand ministry off to those who would follow after him, is a guy named Levi who is a tax collector. And Levi has a second name that we know him by. Does anybody know what else he's called? Matthew.

You know, Matthew is his Greek name and Levi is his Hebrew name. He's from the tribe of Levi, and he works as a tax collector. And for the Romans, he has a Roman name or a Greek name and he has a Hebrew name. He's the same Matthew who would go on to write the Gospel of Matthew. And we're told that he's right now a tax collector.

And that's important because around 30 A.D. when this is happening, the Romans ruled over the Jews and they were a cruel, oppressive regime who cared nothing about God and spat in the face of God's people. And so for a Jewish boy to choose to go and become a tax collector for the Romans, it was looked as a complete betrayal of your own people. He was working as a. An agent for a foreign army who, who hated God's people.

And so it's much worse than if you found out your friend works for the IRS and you go, I've got some big feelings about that. You know, this is an absolute betrayal of who we are as a people, that you would go inside with the people who are opposed to your people and your God. But when we. We see Jesus approach Levi, that's not what he sees. When he sees Levi, and he doesn't seem to care what other people think about Levi and what other people are saying about Levi behind.

He doesn't really even care about what Levi has done right or wrong in his life up into this point. He approaches Levi and he says two words that change everything. He looks at him in the face and he says, you follow me. Follow me. And Levi does it.

He drops everything, everything. And he follows him. And when I say he leaves everything, consider this. He left his tax collector booth, which means he's leaving the covering, the umbrella of covering that he has by the Roman people. And the Jewish people already hate him.

He's left them behind. Now he's leaving his covering from the Romans behind. So he's lost his career, he's lost his job, he's lost his safety, he's lost his identity, he's lost the community with which he belongs. He said, I'm letting it all go, everything go, and I'm not holding on to anything else as I come to follow you. And there's two things before we go deeper.

I just want you to hear. I just want you to hear this so bad today. First thing is you are not too sinful for Jesus. I just want you to hear that. You cannot out sin the cross of Jesus Christ.

Some of you need to hear this, because we think about our lives and we all have shame and we have regret and we have guilt for places we've gone, thoughts we've thought, things we've said, things that we've done. And there are moments of our lives where we go, look, I just am in a bad spot, and there is not really an uptick in my life. There's not a way for me to ever be really, truly okay. But you cannot out sin the cross of Jesus. He's simply better at saving than we are at sinning.

Right? Some of you need to hear that. The second thing I want you to hear is that disciples leave everything behind. Please hear this. Jesus is not an additive or a substitute to our lives.

It's not like when you encounter Jesus, you go, oh, good, now I've got something to fall back on. Or maybe he can help me get to the next level in my life. That's not a disciple. Disciples leave everything behind. It's not him just substituting or adding to or supplementing the way I already view life and the things I'm already chasing in life.

It's a total reversal and a turn of. I've had my allegiance here, but now my allegiance lies with this one. I heard a pastor say this this week, and I absolutely agree. Jesus didn't come to take sides. He came to take over.

Yeah, I heard some oho in the room. Yeah. And it's fascinating how Jesus does this, because he doesn't. When he comes to take over, he doesn't come in and start siding up to the Roman governor and going, hey, look, let's work together, because we could really do something here. And he doesn't look around to try to figure out who are the most influential Jewish leaders.

Those who. They're not that bad. There's a few things, but I could use them. And we could work together and we could change society. No, he goes through and he says, levi, a Jewish tax collector.

You follow me? And he goes to a guy named Simon, who is told. We're told he's a zealot. Zealots were radicalized Jews who sought to overthrow the Romans by violence and force. He says, you zealot and you Jewish tax collector, who would have been at each other's throats, drop everything and follow me.

And he goes to fishermen in the same region who probably are competing for the same kind of business. And he goes, you follow me? Not the educated, not the decorated, not the venerated, but those who are considered to be weak in this world to shame what the world considers to be powerful and strong. That's what First Corinthians says. Consider this.

First Corinthians 1:26. Consider your calling, brethren. There were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to.

To shame that which is strong. That's what Jesus is doing here in Levi's story. And it's what he's doing in my life, and it's what he's doing today in our lives. And this is what God does over and over again. Think about throughout the Bible.

Think about, like Abraham. He's known as the father of what? Father of our faith. Somebody go to the father of our faith. The microphone popped, and I was like, my goodness, I lost him.

The father of our faith. But we know in Abraham's story, there's all these lapses of faith throughout his story, yet he's the father of our faith. Think about Moses. Moses is a guy who's called by God to be his voice to the Pharaoh and his voice to his people, to call them out of slavery and to show them a new way to walk. And yet Moses, when God called him, said, but God, I don't speak well, right?

And God goes, that's great. I'm going to do great things here. This is perfect. Think about David. David is considered a man after God's own, what heart.

And yet David over and over again did awful, horrible things. Why are these guys considered great in the story of faith? It's because they decided at some point I realized I'm weak. I realize that I don't have it all together. I realize that I am fallible.

I realize that I'm sick. I realize that I need help. And they wouldn't trust in their greatness. They wouldn't trust in their strength. But again and again, they would fall and depend upon God's strength and God's guidance, God's strength and his leadership and God's peace, not their own, and God's control and not their own and God's power and not their own.

They would fall on God again and again. And this is what Jesus does when he moves towards Levi. He sees what Levi can become as Levi follows him, rather than seeing Levi stuck in his sin. And he moves towards us, our brokenness, and he calls us to follow him. And he does it with Levi.

And we're gonna see he's gonna start to do it with some of Levi's friends, But there are people who don't like it. Verse 29. Levi gave a big reception for him at his house, and there was a great crowd of tax collectors, a bunch of them, and other people who were reclining at the table. Which, side note, I think this is cool. Levi's a tax collector and he leaves his job, his career, all of the things that are going on in his life.

But before he leaves, he goes, hey, guys, I met Jesus. And he didn't even have, like a long history with Jesus yet. He just goes, I met the one who's gonna change everything. Everything has changed. And I want you to know him.

Like, there's no greater reason to throw a party than, hey, I met Jesus, and I just want you to know him. And he does this. He throws a party. And the Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at his disciples, saying, why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors? And the sinners?

Now understand, their problem wasn't with the party. Their issue wasn't with Jesus being at a party. Their issue was with the guest list at the party. Because the Pharisees had kind of perfected this salvation by separation or segregation mindset. Salvation by segregation was the way that they thought.

And so when they look at Jesus and his disciples, they're going, there's no way that Jesus could have any substance or any spiritual weight or authority or even be good If Jesus is hanging out with and enjoying the company of people like this, and it creates what is, I think, one of the more defining moments of Jesus ministry. It's actually another kind of miracle. They've already seen that Jesus can cast out demons. They've already seen that Jesus can rebuke a sickness and heal the sick and make dead things come alive. They've seen this kind of thing.

But this is a different kind of miracle. And that Jesus creates space at the table for absolutely anyone to come into the presence of God. It's a miracle. It's something only God can do. It's breaking into the natural order of how people think and people work and people live in this world.

It's a miracle because God breaks in and says, I'm creating space. That anyone can come into the presence of God and experience his forgiveness and his love and his grace. And from the point of view of the tax collectors, when they're looking at this party and they see tax collectors, they're going, these a point of view of the Pharisees, they're looking at the tax collectors going, these guys are blasphemers. They hate God, they're against God, they're enemies of God. The Jewish tax collectors have turned their back on, on faithfulness to God and they have turned themselves and made themselves opposition to God.

How can Jesus sit in their company and commune with them? And Jesus responds to them and he gives them an answer that's really strange and at the same time invalidates everything about their question. Jesus shows up and what he does is he begins to undermine and challenge some of their most tightly held onto beliefs. The first of those is he challenges their belief that separation creates purity. They believed in salvation by segregation.

They believed in separation equals purity. Doesn't that sound a little like Hitler, by the way? And it sounds a lot like some of our US politics right now. And it sounds like some, sometimes some good church people right now. Separation creates purity.

And if it hurts, it should hurt, right? Because Jesus comes in and invites everyone into the table. He steps into the place where everyone has their baggage and everyone has their problems. And he says, come and dine with me. He invites them in.

He doesn't say separate from me. He comes in and he challenges this to them. Not only that, but he challenges the tightly held belief in the Pharisees that only bad people sin and that if you obey the law, then you're better than them. And he challenges this and he undermines this. And I was thinking about this this week, how we might be modern day Pharisees.

We might be modern day Pharisees if we put ourselves in the category of I'm the good one and the other is the bad one. And we might be modern day Pharisees if we think I just ought to have more power. If I could just get in power and have control over the situation, I could make it better than other people make it. I know the way things should be. If that idea has gripped our conscience, if that idea has gripped the way we make decisions in the way that we move through this world, we might be modern day Pharisees if we try to get others to live like Jesus and value what Jesus values and do the things that Jesus would have them to do without ever sharing with them the message of Jesus.

We might be modern day Pharisees if that's the way that we're living. And you look at these Pharisees and they didn't want Jesus coming in and messing with their way of life. They knew how things should be. They knew how things should go. They didn't want Jesus coming in with his tax collector parties and messing with them.

They don't need anything from Jesus. And Jesus responded to them and their question, how can you sit with these guys? Verse 31, he answered. And he said to them, it's not those who are well who need a physician, but it's those who are sick. I've not come to call the righteous, but I've come to call sinners to repentance.

In other words, Jesus didn't come to hang out with people who feel like they have everything right in their life and that they're well and there's nothing wrong in their life. That wasn't his reason for coming. He came for those who know something's not wrong and something's not well inside of me. Something's not right inside of me. There's something wrong in my life and in this world and I need help.

And they might turn to him when he approaches them. It's called repentance. It's the reason why when Patrick talked about Peter's calling the other day, remember when Patrick talked about how Peter and the guys are fishing all night long and they're not catching anything? And then Jesus comes and says, throw your nets down again. And they're going, we've done it, but if you say it, I'll do it.

And they throw the nets down and there's so many fish that it's sinking the boats. And then Peter looks at Jesus and he throws him down at Jesus. Feet, throws himself down. And he says, depart from me, Lord, for I'm a man full of sin. I'm a sinful, sinful man.

And then Levi, he looks and he goes, I'm willing to leave everything to follow after you. And then you get Pharisees who go, I think everyone, even Jesus, probably ought to come more my way, because I know how things should be and how things should go. The Pharisees, if you think about it, are asking Jesus to act like a doctor who avoids sickness, people. What good is that? And Jesus says, that's not how it works.

And if the Pharisees could understand it, I don't see them understanding at this moment that Jesus isn't saying, I've come to save tax collectors. It's not even that. Jesus is saying, I've come to save sinful people. And if they would only see, that includes them, that includes everyone. Romans 3, quoting Psalm 14, says, God looks down from heaven upon all of the earth.

And as he looks down upon all of the earth, what he sees is, there are none that is righteous, not even one. And that's not a condemning judgment. It has a condemnation underneath it. But it's a reason, a motivating reason, that Christ came because there was none who was righteous, not even one healthy person upon the face of the earth. And so Jesus came to bring healing and sickness to all, bring healing to all who are dealing with sickness.

He came to be in the lives of those who are far from God, who have chosen to be far from God, those who have struggled, those who are broken, those who are full of sin. And the Pharisees go, everyone should go our way, because we have figured out we know how life should be. Jesus goes, that's not what I'm here for, is to hang out with people like that. And if the Pharisees, here's the irony. They're the ones who had the Old Testament memorized.

They knew the law, they knew the prophets, right? They knew Isaiah 61 that said that the Messiah would come and he would do ministry with the oppressed, the poor, the prisoners, the sick, the blind. It's what. Remember when Jesus was in Nazareth, we saw this, like, four weeks ago. He stood up in the synagogue in his hometown and he read from the scroll of Isaiah and he said, the Anointed One will come for the sick, the oppressed, the prisoners and the blind.

He goes, close the scroll, talking about me. That's what I've come for. And if the Pharisees knew half of what they thought they knew when they saw someone coming in, spending all of his time with the sick and the oppressed and the demon possessed and the poor and blessing them in God's name and healing them in God's name, and performing miracles and bringing salvation to people's lives, then that should have been a signal to them. They should have had their eyes opened and gone. This Jesus must be the one that we've waited for for so long that they wouldn't do it.

They had hard hearts. They should have known when they saw him hanging out with tax collectors, this is a sign that this is Him. You know, I was thinking about this this week, how I've told you before that I came to believe in Jesus as person and his Savior at a young age through the testimony of my mother, my father, through the church I was a part of. But it was a number of years later before I began to leave everything behind and follow after him, before I understood him to be the leader, the Lord of my life. And I had a little building my testimony season in between there.

And when I was around 13 or 14, God really got control of my heart. And I was going, okay, I'm ready to leave things behind and follow after you. And at that time, I was in a group of friends who were. It was the popular crowd at school. And I had made it my one ambition in life to be at the very center of that popular crowd.

And I would compromise anything, I would say anything and do anything to be at the very center of that. But when God got control of my heart, I decided, I'm going to have Christian friends now, and I'm not going to speak to them anymore. And a little bit of time passed, not a lot of time before, when my friend Chris White called me from the popular crowd. And Chris White said, hey, where have you been? I hadn't heard from you.

I don't have the exact quote, but it was pretty much something like this. Hey, Chris. Yeah, man, I am a Christian now, and you guys are a really bad example in my life, and you're really not that great of people. So I'm not going to be hanging out with you anymore. I'm going to be with good friends now.

And Chris said, that sounds awesome. I totally understand. And I want to know Jesus, too, because you've won me over. Click.

I can't say what he said to me on the phone. I would be on the news this week, and I have a deal with my wife. I'll never be on the news. So I think about this because Jesus, when the pharisees say, what are you doing with this people? His response, because there's separation equals purity.

Jesus response is, I'm exactly where I should be. I'm right in the heart of it. I should be right with people who are far from God. And they know it, or they don't know it yet, but they're gonna know it soon because they're gonna see something different. They're gonna see kindness, which leads to repentance.

But the Pharisees couldn't see it, and they wouldn't see it. They refused to see it. So they dropped this line of argument. And. And they take another tactic to try to attack Jesus in this moment.

And it's funny because when John the Baptist we've learned about was on the scene, they didn't like John the Baptist and they distanced themselves from him and they threw, you know, little bombs over his way. But now to attack Jesus, they're going to use John's reputation against Jesus. Because sometimes even the worst of enemies will come together when it's against God. And this is what they do. Verse 33, they said to him, the disciples of John, who we used to hate, but we're going to use them against you right now.

They often fast and they offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same. But your disciples, they eat and they drink. And their point was that the Pharaoh, or the Jews in general would fast one time a year, but the Pharisees would do so two times a week. And the reason they did this is because fasting at this time was a sign or an effort of mourning. And their idea was that the mournful fasting would gain the attention of God's mercy and his blessing in their life.

And so for the Pharisees, they would fast two times a week. And they would do so to really show how holy they were. Look at all the fasting. Because they on the outside would look like, you know, I'm, you know, withering away because I haven't eaten eaten this week. But everyone else would go, oh, they must be great on the inside, because look what they're doing for the Lord.

And so they look at Jesus and his disciples and say, how come you guys are not as religious as we are? And John the Baptist's disciples are, which, by the way, if Jesus was a pastor in a modern church today, I think that people would say the same thing. Why are you not as religious as we are? There are three things, three stories that Jesus gives in response to this attack. The first story in verse 34 is about a wedding.

And Jesus said to them, you cannot make the attendance of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? But the days will come and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days. Now, some of you have been to a wedding that was a good wedding and it was fun and it should be, it was appropriate. But some of you have also been to boring weddings, right? It went on a little too long.

The guy standing on the stage wouldn't stop, you know, running his trap. And you're going, I just kind of would like this whole thing to be over with. And here Jesus says, I'm here and if you understood who I was, you would understand. This isn't a time for fasting, this is a time for feasting. And what you are doing is you're standing outside of the feast and you're complaining about how hungry you are out there, how why don't you stop it and come in and eat?

Why don't you stop playing at church and playing at religion and trying to prove yourselves to everyone and come in and receive everything that I've come to give to you. Come and enjoy the party with us. So he tells this story about a wedding. This is why we're eating and drinking. Second, he talks about patches.

Look at verse 36. He was also telling them there's a parable. No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment, puts it on an old garment, otherwise he will tear both the new and a piece from the new will not match into the old. And the point of this story is that the garment Jesus comes to bring to us is new life and it's whole life. He doesn't come to patch up our old life, just to let it fall apart once again as it gets rubbed through this world.

What he comes and brings is totally new. It's wholly new. And it changes everything in our life. That's the point of the garment story. And he tells a third story.

Wine and wineskins. Verse 37. And no one puts on puts new wine into old wine skins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out and the skins will all be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. I'll explain this one.

So wine restored in goat skins. And when new wine is poured into a goat skin and the fermentation process began, the gases would expand that skin and fill it up once it was emptied. If you put new wine in that stretched skin again, it's become brittle, it's become stretched, it's become rigid. And as the fermentation process began and the gases expanded, that thing had been expanded beyond its capacity and it would, it would burst. You can't put new wine into old wineskins, and any winemaker would never do that.

And Jesus is making this point here that rituals of religion and playing church is like worn out wineskins just following the rules and just trying to be good and just trying to, you know, say holy things. But it not being really what Jesus comes to bring, it's just stretched out, it's worn out, it's rigid. It doesn't have room for what Jesus comes to bring. Because the gospel that he brings is ever expanding in goodness, ever expanding in grace, ever expanding in joy in a person's life when they receive. The gospel in a rigid religion cannot contain it, cannot hold down that which Jesus brings.

He says one more thing, verse 39. No one, after drinking Old wineskins, wishes for new fortune, for he says the old is good enough. And so he looks at the Pharisees and he says, you've been drinking so long at that old religion thing that you've lost your taste for what's really good. You're so used to eating McDonald's cheeseburgers that you hadn't been to Rodeo Goat, right? You're so satisfied on the junk that you've forgotten there's something so much better that God has in store for.

For you. It's a new way for a new day. And you can take. You can't take grace, you can't take forgiveness and freedom and power and joy and mix it up with separation and isolation and fighting for control and us versus them. And I've already arrived and I know everything that I need to know and I know exactly what to do in this world.

You can't mix those things together. And these three stories tell us something about Jesus and tell us something about ourselves. So I do have two points because I'm not as good as Jesus at telling stories. Something about Jesus that tells us he came to do something much more significant than patch us up. Note takers, write that down.

If you don't take notes, just write it down. Jesus came to do something much more significant than to patch us up. His purpose is to bring something new, is to take dead hearts and make them alive, to take dry bones and make them into flesh. Jesus came to make dead people alive, spiritually dead people overflowing with spiritual life. He didn't come to patch us up and just make Our lives incrementally a little better.

We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. He didn't come just to ride in our back pocket so we could reach out to him. Sometimes when we feel like we need a blessing or a little help, or when we're having a bad day, it came for something much more than that. Something about him, something about us. We're continually in danger of developing hardened hearts.

Write that down. We're continually in danger of developing hardened hearts. Our hearts can become like stretched wineskins, brittle and rigid. And that will prevent us from ever receiving what Jesus has to offer. And if you think about it, that doesn't make us special.

This makes us normal. Because God's people have been doing this for a very long time. Israel. They ended up worshiping snakes on poles. They ended up taking the Ark of the Covenant and things like the temple.

And they made them like lucky charms for their life and for their faith. They worshiped the creation rather than the Creator. They took the law and they used it like a ladder to try to climb to God instead of like a mirror to show them their need for God over and over again. Hearts that were once soft become so quickly hardened and sometimes we don't even realize it's happening. It's so easy for hard heart, for soft hearts to become hard hearts.

We have to watch for that if we're to be apprentices of Jesus. It's not enough for us to have some good thoughts about him or some good thoughts towards Him. It's only enough that we would live like Him.

If we're unwilling to embrace humility like Jesus, remember Philippians 2, that we're to have the same attitude that is in Jesus Christ, that even though he is in the very form of God, he did not consider that something to be held onto, but he emptied himself taking on the form of a servant. If we're unwilling to take on humility like Jesus and unwilling to face and move towards brokenness like Jesus and invite all people to the table, if we're unwilling to move in the manner of Jesus, then we cannot experience the contentment in every circumstance or the joy of Jesus marking our life. And we cannot be a part of inviting people into the kingdom of Jesus. And can I just say this, I don't know if you guys realize this.

In my lifetime, I think about history, there have been moments, but we've never been more isolated and more divided in our nation. And I don't know if, you know, there's an election this year, something happening in November. I Don't know if you knew about that. Just a little surprise. Prepare you for that.

And the us versus them thing is just mounting. And it was already really, really bad before.

And maybe it's time, rather than isolating and dividing and trying to separate, to create purity, to learn from Jesus and to come to the table and to redeem and reclaim the table for the kingdom of God, maybe it's time for us, instead of saying, well, this is me and that is you, to start saying, well, where is Jesus in all of this and what is he doing? And how can I have a broad reach and welcome people into the table? Learn from Jesus, because this is what he was doing. Time may never be better than it is right now for Christians to reclaim the table.

I'll end with this. There's a painting by Caravaggio in the 16th century called the Calling of St. Matthew. We've got it here. And I just want to point some things out to you.

In the painting on the far, your right hand with his back to you, that's supposed to be St. Peter. And behind him, the guy with the awesome chops, that's supposed to be Jesus. And his finger pointed, maybe you can kind of see Michelangelo's hand of God reaching out in the creation of Adam. Just the homage, the Ra recognition, maybe even that Jesus is God.

We'll see that in there. And he's pointing to the middle of a group of people, to a man in the center. And that's supposed to be Levi or Matthew. And I want to zoom in on his expression and his hand and look at his eyes and look at his finger for just a second. It's as if Levi is saying, who me?

And I think about this, because when we read this passage, it is very much one of those passages that's easy to point fingers at other people when you see the Pharisees and you see their response to Jesus. But I think we all sit in the seat of Levi, every one of us. Who me and the who me may mean different things for you this morning. For some of you, who me may mean you want to talk to me.

I didn't know that's what it was about. God wants to talk. He wants to have a relationship with me. And maybe this morning that's you. You've been caught in religion, you've been in church, you've gone to Sunday school, you've given tithes, you've gone on mission trips, but you've never had an abounding relationship with Jesus Christ in which he makes dead things alive.

In you this morning, maybe it's who me. And for others of you, maybe your who me moment is you want to use me to do your work in the world. You want to change lives. You want to redeem brokenness in the world through who me like he's doing through Matthew in this moment. Or maybe it's you want me to leave everything behind who me?

You don't understand how vested I am right now. I can't leave anything behind. You don't understand what plans I have for my future and what responsibilities sometimes little responsibility that become big responsibilities that I'm thinking about that you're not thinking about God. You want me to leave who me leave everything behind. And for some of you, maybe this morning the who me moment is I got everything going on fine in my life.

Everything is fine me. You're not calling me out right now, right? But look, it's almost like he. Maybe he's not pointing at himself. Maybe he's pointing at the guy next to him, going, you mean him.

This morning I want you to sit with the who me moment, because we all sit in the seat of Levi. I think it's incredibly clear in this text this morning what Jesus came for. He came to reclaim the table, to bring people together under his lordship, under his grace, under his kindness, which leads to repentance. He came for the broken and the weary and the oppressed, the sick, not to sit with those and party with those who think they're fine and they don't need anything but to come to those who would repent and turn to Him. That's what he came for, to be King of hearts and king of lives, to establish his kingdom on earth?

Who me? I give you three questions just to reflect on.

First question, where am I trying to place Jesus patches on my broken ways? Or trying to contain Jesus in my version of faith and life? And you can see his stories in there, the garment story and the wineskin story. Are there places where you've tried to put a Jesus patch on your broken ways? Or you try to contain Jesus in your version, your style of this is what it means.

This is what it looks like to walk with Jesus. I know exactly what it looks like. Like. And if it doesn't look like this, well, then you know you're doing it well. Second question is, where is God at work in the brokenness around me?

Is it possible Jesus is sitting at a table with some people and he has a purpose and a reason and he's about to make a change? He's about to change some lives. Third, how could I join in what God is doing? And maybe a tip on that question. Sometimes I think we believe that we're doing God's work, like the Pharisees did.

They believe they were doing God's work. But if our manner doesn't look like Jesus manner, we're not joining him in his work. We're probably just in the way. If we're going to join in what he's doing, it ought to look and sound like Jesus. Okay, let me pray for us this morning, God, we come to a text that in some ways, I don't know.

I've preached this text times before. I've studied it so many times before God. And sometimes I've come to it and I've walked away going, how fun. And other days I've walked away from it going, who, me? And this morning, Holy Spirit, we invite you to speak to our minds and our hearts because we don't want to be caught in old garments that are tearing and are threadbare and feeling the pain of that.

We don't want to be caught in old wine skins that are brittle with rigid hearts like it's miserable being caught in that place. But for some reason, it's in our nature. Maybe as humans, maybe as this American version of Christianity, which is just culturally bound, has reigned for so long, we've become rigid in some. Some ways, and we realize something's wrong, but we're so scared of letting go of what we've known and what we've held on to. And we will compromise anything to try to feel like we're holding it together.

But I pray, Holy Spirit, you would help us to rest in Jesus Christ.

For those of us who have known you, Jesus, you're the author of our faith, but the Bible says you're also the perfecter of our faith. And so this morning I pray that we could. We could let go of anything that holds us back from trusting you. For today and for tomorrow.

Would you help us to be honest with ourselves? Because our souls are scared to be honest? Would you help us to be honest this morning so that we might receive from you life and life abundant and walk in it, Church. If you just hold your hands out with your palms up for just a moment. Just do this with me with arms extended, hands up, palms up to the sky.

It's a symbol of two things, of letting go. And it's a symbol of receiving.

So, Holy Spirit, I pray this morning for our church for each of you, each person and each family in this room. With our hands held open to you that you would help us to let go of things which have kept us bound that might make us accidental Pharisees in this world and steal from us life and joy and peace and the opportunity to introduce more and more people to the kindness, that loving kindness of God.

And there's some things, some real things in our life that we're holding onto. And some of it's fear and some of it's insecurity, some of it's pride, some of it is pain. And there are things that we have held onto so long that we didn't realize we were still gripping those things because our hands are just used to it. But I pray by your power, because we can't do this. We're just people.

But your God, would you help us to open our hands and really let go of some things and entrust them to you? Jesus, you said, all who are weary and heavy burden come to me and I will give you rest. So help us to come and to let go. But also would you help us to receive with hands out and palms up? Would you help us to receive from you the kindness and the mercy and the goodness and the life and the love?

I mean, it's miracles that you want to give into our hands. It's not stuff made by human hands. It's stuff that comes only from you. So would you help us to receive and to joy and to delight in you take that which you give to extend it back out into the world In Jesus name, Amen.