JESUS FOLLOWERS
#002 JESUS FOLLOWERS
Scripture Luke 5:27-39 Orig. 7/14/63
- Rewr. 4/10/85
Passage: 27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” 33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” 34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” 36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”
Purpose: Continuing a study from Luke, calling attention to some who early came to be followers of Jesus
Keywords: Bible Study
Timeline/Series: Luke
Introduction
The first part of our study has to do with the call of a tax-collector to be a Christ-follower. The scripture makes clear that they were a hated breed, and the reason is clear. The Romans didn’t have an IRS. There were no computers to foul up, and there were no refunds to grant.
They assessed a certain district the amount of taxes that were to be paid, and then sold the collecting rights to the highest bidder. The officials didn’t care how much or how little money has actually collected, just so long as they got their assessed gross.
It is easy to see how such a program could be abused, and how thieves with strong-armed tactics would tend to become the tax-collectors; and how they could become hated by the people.
U.S.A. Today did a piece this week on numbers of assaults on IRS agents. It’s up 50% in the last five years. The article centered around a citizen’s going after some agents with his unregistered AR-15 rifle as they were about to seize his Cherokee in lieu of payment.
The point is that tax people still are not all that popular, especially this time of the year. We all know that it has to be done, and that our system, while not perfect, is the best available. Yet tax people are not popular folks.
I. The Selection of Matthew. V27 “After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, ‘Follow me.’”
At this point there were only four who were followers of Jesus—Simon, Andrew, James, and John (Matthew 4 and Luke 5). Jesus already envisioned calling more. But He must teach even these four. A lesson they need to learn is based on human worth and repentance. These were simple men, and thus were easily teachable. Both Mark and Matthew include the disciples at the feast.
Jesus’ method was to reach out to people who needed Him. It had nothing to do with “who” they were, or “what” they had. It had to do with “how” the perceived themselves in relation to God. There are down-and-outers and up-and-outers, but chances are the ones walking alone are more open to spiritual profferings.
A major purpose here is to communicate the need for repentance. Remember, his link with John in Matthew 3:1: “John, preaching, saying ‘Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 4:17: Jesus said “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
At the feast Jesus will have occasion to illustrate repentance. Levi the publican becomes Matthew. Many publicans are at the feast to hear Jesus. They need repentance. Many religious leaders are contemptuously looking on. They need repentance also.
There is a terrible danger in the lives of many contemporary religious folk, that their religion becomes a shield against repentance.
II. Secondly, A Question to Jesus About Why His Followers Are Different. V33 “Why do the disciples of John fast, likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?” We need to try to get to the real question. Why don’t your followers fast? Why don’t your people commiserate rather than celebrate?
Don’t disdain fasting. I don’t know but one other thing that would more for the pastor and people of Transylvania Baptist Church—That’s prayer.
The time comes when Christians ought to fast. Isaiah 58:6 “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke.”
“Yoke” is used to gain advantage. Orthodox Jews like orthodox religionists of today believed that religion was supposed to make one appear uncomfortable. They endured the Sabbath. We take it in two hour units. They fasted on Monday and Thursday (6a.m. to 6p.m.). They put ash on their faces to show their fasting.
Anytime we are in such stricture of soul that our time with God is not interrupted for nourishment, whether by design or by forgetfulness, it is fasting.
Jesus uses the occasion of the question to share three parables:
(1) The true spirit life is like a wedding feast. V34: “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?” We are not compelled to do what we wish not to do. We are not denied things because they are pleasurable. We are simply promised that living life in faith based on the Word of God is what brings true happiness.
(2) The true spirit life is like a piece of new cloth. V36 “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one. It will tear, and they do not match.” The Greek word for “tear,” pronounced “sxisma,” is our word for “schism.” The first three usages are about religious division. There is a present struggle in the Convention. Jesus is not demeaning of the Old Testament but, rather, the way they looked at it. They could not repair it by attaching some new ideology over an old error. Jesus was certainly not certifying that the new is better than the old. He wanted to get to the heart of truth and build thereon.
(3) The true spirit life is like fermenting juice. The life situation is that these were not bottles but goatskins. The Greek word pronounced “bota” is our word for “boot.” Old skins are weak, cracked. Fermentation will penetrate. What Jesus is teaching is that people who know will not choose the new wine over old. The value is in the aging, the changing. The good comes from the new in the process of change. Work through a new thought for it to become truth. Leave room for repentance to be contained in your vessel of speculation until it ferments into truth.
Closing
George Whitefield, 1700’s, said in one of his sermons, “You see, brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, what great blessings are treasured up for you in Jesus Christ and what you are entitled to by believing on His name. Take heed, therefore, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. Think often how highly you are favored; and remember, you have not chosen Christ, He has chosen you.” (Whitefield’s Sermon Outlines, Eerdman’s Publishing 1956, p.122)