WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:01.120 It's great to be with y'all. 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:03.759 I missed being here last week. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:07.519 So if you've got your Bible, let's open up to Mark chapter two. 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:09.759 Mark chapter two. 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:12.640 And I'll pray one more time as you turn there. 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:16.320 Father, thank you for being with us. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:18.160 Hear our prayers. 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:19.839 Speak to your servants. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:20.960 We listen. 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:28.480 As we seek to draw near to you, would you keep your promise, Father, and draw near to us. 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:29.760 Meet us in your word. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:31.679 We pray all this in Christ's name. 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:32.560 Amen. 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:36.719 We're essentially picking up exactly where we left off two weeks ago in Mark. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:43.280 So Mark chapter 2, and we will start in verse 13. 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:51.920 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:58.880 And as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:01.200 And he rose and he followed him. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:11.359 And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:22.560 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:34.400 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:42.640 Now, um, I'm not an expert in ancient Israel and the Roman Empire and the taxation policies. 00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:45.439 I read a lot of commentaries to figure this stuff out, okay? 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:48.159 So, but let me try to help us understand. 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:58.799 This is in the town of Capernaum, and this would have been a major crossroad, a road that left Damascus and came into this new territory, and you had the Sea of Galilee there. 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:00.400 There's a lot of commerce. 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:07.599 And so Matthew, Levi, the same person when you read the different gospels, he's essentially running a toll booth. 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:13.120 And he's working for King Herod, who was technically a Jew, but he served the Roman Empire. 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:19.360 And here's the way that it worked: you could go to King Herod and you could bid to be the toll booth collector. 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:27.520 And essentially what you would try to say is, hey, if you let me be the toll booth collector, I guarantee you I will collect more money for you than anybody else. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:30.560 All the goods coming through, I'm gonna tax them really heavy. 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:37.120 And the idea was, yeah, you would tax them really hard for King Herod, but you would also line your own pockets. 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:52.719 And so therefore, listen, not just the Jews, Gentiles as well tended to hate the tax collectors and the men that manned the toll booths because they were extortionist, because they were greedy, because they were selfish, because they would rob you blind. 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:56.719 They would basically charge you whatever they thought they could get away with, right? 00:02:56.800 --> 00:02:58.960 It's like taking your car in somewhere to get it fixed. 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:00.000 How much is this gonna cost? 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:01.759 Well, how much can you pay? 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:03.439 That's what they felt. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:16.319 Now, the Jewish people, especially the really religious Jewish people, really hated the tax collectors because they interacted so much with Gentiles and they seemed like they had sold out. 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:26.960 And so Jesus, he's teaching, he walks by, he sees Levi, and he says, Follow me, very much like he had done with the four fishermen. 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:30.960 And immediately Levi gets up, leaves it all, starts to follow him. 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:38.960 One commentator named Franz said this: it was the immediate response, reckless abandonment of the former way of life. 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:48.800 Now, if you remember, when Jesus called Peter, kind of the next thing we saw was he was in Peter's home having a meal with Peter, family, other disciples. 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:50.159 Where do we see Jesus? 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:54.319 Now he's in the home of Matthew, having a friend with sinners, with tax collectors. 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:54.719 Okay? 00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:55.840 Now this is pretty interesting. 00:03:55.919 --> 00:04:00.960 It's kind of a side note, but when you read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they all tell us about the call of the four fishermen. 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:02.080 Most of us are familiar with that. 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:04.159 They all tell us about the call of Matthew. 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:08.080 They don't tell us about the call of any of the other seven disciples. 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:09.120 Why is that? 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:09.919 We don't know for sure. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:11.919 Maybe it's because Matthew wrote a gospel. 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:19.680 But it might have been, and I think it probably was because Matthew's call was the most scandalous. 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:22.079 I don't know if any of you watch the show The Chosen. 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:23.040 I don't really watch it. 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:25.439 I think I've seen two half episodes. 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:33.439 But I saw the episode where Jesus calls Matthew, and Peter basically says to him, What are you doing? 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:39.279 And he says, Nobody expected me to call you, and I called you, and Peter says, This is different. 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:42.000 And Jesus said, Get used to different. 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:45.199 Again, that's not in the Bible, but I think there's a sense of that. 00:04:45.279 --> 00:04:53.680 When Jesus called Matthew, the tax collector, to be one of his loyal followers, it would have been shocking and scandalous to everybody. 00:04:53.920 --> 00:05:08.639 And then to rub insult into injury, I'm gonna go have a party with him, a feast, with all of his friends and former associates, the people that haven't left their tax booths yet to follow me. 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:17.839 Now, probably when a normal Jewish family was sitting down for a normal Jewish meal, they would have probably sat around a table, maybe kind of like what we do. 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:33.680 But this idea of reclining at table, a lot of times we've seen it maybe in films and movies and paintings where they're laying down on couches or in rugs, it was more of a party for entertainment, for feast, for hanging out, for staying for a long time, for interacting. 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:35.040 That's what Jesus is doing. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:39.920 Okay, and one commentator said this: eating with someone had special connotations. 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:43.680 It was an offer of peace, trust, brotherhood, and forgiveness. 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:46.639 In short, sharing a table meant sharing life. 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:52.720 Eating together created a special bond of fellowship through eating the broken bread. 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:56.560 Now, the Pharisees, the scribes, two different groups, but they overlap. 00:05:56.879 --> 00:06:02.079 Not every scribe was a Pharisee, not every Pharisee was a scribe, but a lot of them were both. 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:07.600 And the scribes were more professional people that were supposed to interpret and apply the Old Testament law. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:09.439 The Pharisees were more laymen. 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:13.600 They didn't necessarily have to be a professional, but they were fastidious. 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:22.480 They were super serious about keeping not just Old Testament law, that's a good thing, but there were elders that had added oral tradition. 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:31.360 And the thing about the Pharisees is they basically took the oral tradition and they elevated it to the same status as the Bible itself. 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:32.639 You know people like that? 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:34.639 It's like, well, the Bible says this, so I obey it. 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:35.600 And you're like, well, that's great. 00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:38.160 I mean, I'll and they're like, and my daddy said this, so I obey it. 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:42.079 And it's like, well, listen, I love your dad, but I don't have to obey everything your dad said. 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:43.199 He's just a man. 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:45.040 But some people can treat both the same. 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:47.040 And that's what the Pharisees did. 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:53.600 The word probably came, Pharisee, from the idea of being separate, but it may have come from the idea of being specific. 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:54.879 They were so specific. 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:56.720 Now let me just give you a practical example. 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:05.680 The Old Testament law, probably most of us know this, there were certain foods that Jewish people were allowed to eat and certain type of foods they were not allowed to eat. 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:08.480 But here's what the Pharisees did. 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:10.079 They said, well, here's the danger. 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:14.480 If you go eat with a Gentile, you don't know for sure what they're serving you. 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:16.079 You know, what's in that stew? 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:19.120 You might accidentally eat something unclean. 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:20.959 So you should never eat with a Gentile. 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:22.480 Old Testament didn't say that. 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:24.319 The Pharisees said that. 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:28.639 And they elevated their oral tradition to be equal with the Word of God. 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:29.839 So they see Jesus. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:34.639 Jesus never broke into the Old Testament, He fulfilled it. 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:38.639 But they see him breaking their oral tradition and they don't like it. 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:48.399 Now, do you remember, if you can remember two sermons ago, two weeks ago, they were just thinking in their minds, in their hearts, they were criticizing Jesus. 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:50.879 But at that point, they didn't dare say anything out loud. 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:52.800 But Jesus read their mind. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:54.720 They're growing bolder here. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:55.519 Did you notice that? 00:07:56.079 --> 00:07:58.639 They're still not really ready to confront Jesus. 00:07:58.720 --> 00:07:59.279 That's too much. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:00.639 That's a bridge too far. 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:03.600 Well, though they are willing to confront the disciples. 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:09.360 And again, trying to get kind of the mental picture, probably what was happening is Jesus, I mean, just imagine it. 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:12.879 If you were having a party at your house, who gets the seat of honor? 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:17.120 Jesus, the miracle worker, this amazing teacher. 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:20.639 He's in there, Matthew and all his buddies huddled around him. 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:25.519 And probably the disciples, Peter, James, John, those guys, they're a little bit more on the outskirts. 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:31.839 They may have even been outside, kind of like, we really like Jesus, but he's doing some weird stuff. 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:37.039 We don't, you know, Jesus is so holy, he can go into Matthew's house and come out, okay, not us. 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:38.320 We're gonna stay on the outserts. 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:41.840 And so maybe some of the scribes and Pharisees came the disciples. 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:44.399 Why is Jesus eating with these people? 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:50.080 Now, again, maybe Jesus overheard them and answered. 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:52.879 More likely, the disciples are like, we don't know. 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:58.080 They went and asked Jesus, and Jesus gave them an answer, or Jesus went and answered for them. 00:08:58.320 --> 00:08:58.639 Okay. 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:02.000 And notice what he says. 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:03.200 It's a great answer. 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:10.879 And then this is a proverb other people would use, philosophers would use it in other contexts, but it makes a lot of sense. 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:13.679 Listen, Jesus says, I'm a doctor. 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:15.919 Where should a doctor be? 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:19.279 Hanging out with sick people, hanging out with needy people. 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:23.360 If you're perfectly healthy, you don't need a doctor. 00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:28.480 I didn't come to call the righteous, I came to call sinners. 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:29.440 And that's it. 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:31.919 It moves on to another story that we'll pick up next week. 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:35.360 Now, what can we take away from this? 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:36.000 All right? 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:39.440 At least six things that I've pulled out of this. 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:45.679 Some people have to leave more to follow Jesus than others. 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:58.639 If you're a fisherman and your daddy owns the business, like James and John, and you have hired servants and you leave to follow Jesus, if it goes bad with Jesus, guess what? 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:00.799 You can always go back to the family business, right? 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:06.320 In fact, read the end of John's gospel, the disciples did go back to fishing for a while. 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:15.519 But if you leave this coveted spot of the toll booth collector, you ain't never coming back. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:20.080 You had a golden opportunity. 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:21.600 You're making a fortune. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:25.440 When you walk away, there is a line standing there. 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:27.679 You're like, oh, and that's very interesting. 00:10:27.840 --> 00:10:29.919 What in the world does that have to do with me? 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:33.519 I'll give you a very practical modern-day example. 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:38.559 I was talking to a friend fairly recently who's a homosexual. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:43.840 And he's come, he's heard me teach some, he's been in different settings. 00:10:44.879 --> 00:11:02.080 And so we were having a conversation, and he said, So, you know, if I was a college student on your campus, because we talk about Christ, he said, You're telling me that if I became a Christian, I was gonna be in one of your discipleship groups. 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:08.159 That I couldn't date a man, marry a man, sleep with a man. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:10.080 I said, Yes, that's what I'm I mean. 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:15.360 I'm telling you that not because it's my personal opinion, because that's my best understanding of what the Bible says. 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:18.240 And he said two things. 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:24.720 He said, number one, he said, I will never let anybody, not even God, tell me who I can marry, who I can date. 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:28.080 And he said, I've heard you teach a lot. 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:36.320 He said, one of the things I've heard you say is that the second greatest blessing in life is a great marriage. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:44.399 He's like, what if for you to be a Christian, it meant you could never marry the person that you love that you were attracted to? 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:48.799 And listen, humanly speaking, that's a pretty good argument, is it not? 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:53.200 I'm glad I didn't have to say that to follow Jesus. 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:54.799 And I just had to be honest with him. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:12:02.879 I said, listen, I know it doesn't seem very fair at the human level, but some people to follow Christ, it's gonna cost more. 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:04.960 It's gonna hurt more. 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:07.440 You're gonna have to leave more. 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:10.480 It kind of leads to our second point. 00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:12.960 This is kind of where I went in the conversation with him. 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:24.240 Ultimately, for every person, the most important question that every single human being ever has to wrestle with on planet earth is this is Jesus Christ God, yes or no? 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:30.399 And if you come to the conclusion you don't think Jesus is God, then you should just ignore everything he says. 00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:31.679 Who cares? 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:34.799 Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:42.480 But if you come to the conclusion Jesus Christ is really God, then you gotta do whatever he says. 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:48.720 You gotta leave whatever it is in your life that he doesn't like that he's not pleased with. 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:50.480 There's just no getting around it. 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:52.720 That is the Christian gospel, guys. 00:12:53.679 --> 00:13:07.759 Now, the third thing, Christians, those of us that by grace have chosen to follow Christ and leave whatever he's told us to leave, we ought to be willing, like Jesus, to hang out with anybody. 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:11.600 The worst of the worst, the most rotten. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:13.759 We should not be elitist. 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:23.679 We should be the most welcoming and hospitable people on planet earth with our life, with our time, with our energy, with our money, with our houses, with everything. 00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:24.720 Okay. 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:27.600 I I wonder, I don't know, right? 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:29.360 I'm still getting to know all of you. 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:31.120 I don't know everybody. 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:38.720 But I just wonder if anybody, when I said, hey, I was having a conversation with my homosexual friend, if it made any of you pause in your mind, kind of like, wait a second. 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:41.120 What do you mean? 00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:43.440 You're a preacher, a homosexual. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:49.120 We ought to be ready and willing to befriend anyone. 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:55.919 Even whatever in our mind is the worst kind of sinner, the most scandalous kind of sinner, whatever that is. 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:00.159 Fourth point is this. 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:05.519 There are at least two different major categories of sin biblically. 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:10.320 The first is the scandalous, outward, obvious sinner. 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:13.840 Again, we can all come up with different examples. 00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:16.720 But then there's the second. 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:19.840 It's the stuck up, the self-righteous, the elitist. 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:23.600 And their sin tends to be much more subtle. 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:27.679 And this is a very important point for us, guys. 00:14:30.159 --> 00:14:37.039 The outward scandalous sinner typically looks and sounds a lot worse. 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:44.080 But the stuck up, self-righteous, subtle sinner doesn't look near as bad. 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:52.080 In fact, they might, you're like, hey, if I had to choose which one's my neighbor, I would like the Pharisee to be my neighbor, not the drug dealer. 00:14:53.519 --> 00:15:00.080 But here's the thing spiritually speaking, the Pharisee might actually be in a more deadly setting. 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:02.240 Do you understand why? 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:13.440 Let's imagine we had two people in this congregation, and one of them has skin cancer, and you can tell because they have some very unattractive mole right on their face. 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:14.960 Nobody wants that. 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:20.879 You may be the least vain person in the room, but you're like, I would not like a mole right in the front of my face. 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:23.759 Skin cancer, you gotta go, gotta get it cut out. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:30.399 But the good thing about skin cancer that's just right there, as you see it every day in the mirror, you're like, I got a problem, I got to go to the doctor, right? 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:34.320 This is not just my wife nagging me, this is real, I've got to handle this. 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:42.559 But what if somebody had stage four ovarian or pancreatic cancer and they didn't even know they had it? 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:44.480 They felt great. 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:45.840 They can't see it. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:48.960 I don't even know exactly where a pancreas is on my body. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:53.600 A lot more deadly. 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:58.879 Kill you a lot quicker, partially because you may not even know us there. 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:04.240 What type of sin are you more prone to? 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:06.240 What type of sin am I more prone to? 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:07.600 Guys, we all have sin. 00:16:08.159 --> 00:16:10.080 My sin may be different than your sin. 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:12.399 Her sin may look different than his sin. 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:17.440 And is there a place to lovingly talk to somebody else about their own sin? 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:17.759 Yes. 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:19.919 I've just given you an example of that in my own life. 00:16:20.080 --> 00:16:27.440 But guys, always, always, always work on getting the log out of your own eye before you try to get the speck out of somebody else's. 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:29.039 Okay, fifth. 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:41.440 Both kind of sinners tend to justify themselves, at least at the human level, tend to try to make themselves feel better about themselves by comparing themselves to other sinners. 00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:43.840 Haven't you seen this happen, right? 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:48.799 Maybe the scandalous party sinner who sleeps around like crazy. 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:51.360 They're like, well, at least I'm free. 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:53.039 At least I'm honest. 00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:55.120 At least I'm not trying to hide who I am. 00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:57.519 I'm not, I'm not self-repressed. 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:00.639 I'm just being myself, letting it all hang out. 00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:07.759 I'm not like those stuck up fake people over there who probably got a lot of dirty laundry in their closet, but they don't let anybody know about it. 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:11.119 And the pharisaical. 00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:14.880 I can't believe he said that. 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:17.039 I can't believe she did that. 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:19.039 I can't believe they posted that. 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:20.640 I would never. 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:23.680 It's dangerous. 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:26.160 But here's the most important point. 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:36.960 Jesus is the doctor who came to pursue, came to heal, came to save both kinds of sinners. 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:40.400 Now, you can miss it at first in this text. 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:40.880 Okay? 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:46.880 It's very, very, very, very clear and obvious how he pursues the scandalous sinners. 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:49.519 He goes to Matthew and says, Follow me. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:52.559 And Matthew says, Okay, I'll follow you. 00:17:53.599 --> 00:18:02.880 And then, I don't know if it was Jesus' idea or Matthew's, but one of them had the idea, let's have a party at your house and let's invite all the other extortionists. 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:05.759 Let's invite all the other greedy people. 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:13.680 Let's invite all the other traitors who have sold out the Jewish kingdom to the Roman Empire just to get filthy rich. 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:19.200 And whether it was Jesus that initiated it or Matthew, Jesus says, great idea, let's do it. 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:20.240 It's obvious. 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:27.759 But sometimes when you can read the gospel, it can almost seem like Jesus is stiff arming, almost like, hey, I love the really dirty sinners. 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:31.359 But the Pharisees, it's kind of like Jesus hates them. 00:18:31.519 --> 00:18:32.880 It's not true. 00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:38.480 He just pursues them in a different way because he knows they have to be pursued in a different way. 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:41.680 Notice the statement he says again in verse 17. 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:47.920 Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I came not to call the righteous but sinners. 00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:48.880 Just that last phrase. 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:51.200 I came not to call the righteous but sinners. 00:18:51.440 --> 00:19:03.519 If there was a Pharisee that was really listening, that was really paying attention, maybe like a guy named Nicodemus, he might wrestle with that statement just like it's like, what is Jesus saying? 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:08.720 Is he saying there really is this class of people that are so righteous? 00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:10.720 They don't need Jesus. 00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:12.880 It's not what he's saying. 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:18.000 What he's saying is there's a class of people who think they are so righteous. 00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:20.960 They don't need Jesus, but they really do. 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:32.400 And this little verbal jab was almost like a pebble of truth that Jesus was trying to take and stick in the boot of the Pharisees and the scribes. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:35.279 So it would bother them, it would nag them. 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:44.240 And maybe later, as they meditated on it, it would humble them and it would bring them to salvation, as we know that some of them later did come to salvation. 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:48.480 Now, there's another way to describe the two different types of sin. 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:51.119 All right, and here's the way I describe it. 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:56.799 The scandalous sinners, in some sense, they don't treat sin like a big enough deal. 00:19:57.279 --> 00:19:58.559 It's not that big of a deal. 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:01.440 You know, everybody sins, what's the big deal? 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:07.759 The self-righteous sinners, in some sense, treat sin like way too big of a deal. 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:14.079 And here's what I mean: almost like if you ever do that, there's no hope for you. 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:18.960 There's no forgiveness, there's no mercy, there's no getting free from that kind of addiction. 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:30.400 But Jesus is such a perfect Savior and God that he realizes He treats sin the perfect way that it ought to be treated. 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:33.119 It's deadly serious. 00:20:34.400 --> 00:20:39.920 I mean, imagine again, if you had some type of stage four cancer and you went to the doctor, how do you want the doctor to respond? 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:41.599 Oh, it's not a big deal, don't worry about it. 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:43.039 Probably just clear itself up. 00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:45.359 Like, that's not what I want. 00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:46.400 Right? 00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:48.079 Because I know too well. 00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:53.920 But neither do I want the doctor to say, no hope, nothing we can do, sorry. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:56.640 I want the doctor to say, hey, this is terrible. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:20:58.960 We might have to operate right now. 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:04.079 There might be some terrible, painful chemo you have to go through, but there's hope. 00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:06.880 And that's the kind of doctor Jesus is spiritually. 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:09.519 He says, Listen, your sin is killing you. 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:11.680 Your sin is terrible. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:16.400 Your sin ultimately, if you don't repent, will drown you in the wrath of God. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:19.519 And yet there is hope. 00:21:20.319 --> 00:21:20.960 There is hope. 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:22.240 There is a path out. 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:24.160 And guys, this is it. 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:29.279 The Lord Jesus Christ, when he went to the cross, what was he doing metaphorically? 00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:34.640 He took all of our spiritual sickness on him and he died for it. 00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:36.160 He paid for it. 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:44.880 So that we can be cleansed, not by some type of chemo, but by the most precious thing there is in the universe, the blood of Christ, shed for us. 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:58.880 You know, Paul said, maybe the most self righteous Pharisee that ever lived, the Apostle Paul, he later came to Christ and he said, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am foremost. 00:21:59.279 --> 00:21:59.599 And there 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:18.160 Ought to be a sense, each and every one of us, however you would categorize yourself, that you could say that because at some level, guys, what good is it to sit around and compare yourself to the sinner on the left and the right if you're like, well, I'm not as big of a sinner as he is, but I'm probably a little bit bigger than her, if you die and go to hell. 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:21.279 You're gonna care where you stack up there. 00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:29.599 And on the flip side, who cares about comparing yourself to them versus that group? 00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:32.319 If when you die you get to go to heaven, right? 00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:36.559 Like, hey, if I'm with Jesus forever, I'm just happy I'm here. 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:38.400 I don't care if I'm a doorkeeper. 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:43.680 I'll be the trash collector, there won't be any trash there, but if there was, I'd be happy to be just a garbage man. 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:46.160 I'm just happy I'm here, man. 00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:50.240 Get out of the comparison game, it's deadly. 00:22:50.559 --> 00:22:54.319 If you think you're winning, it'll go to your head, it'll make you arrogant. 00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:58.079 If you think you're losing, it'll beat you up, it'll condemn you. 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:04.480 Spend most of your time and energy just thinking about your personal relationship with Christ. 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:15.440 What is the sin that by the Holy Spirit He's putting his finger on in your heart, so to speak, convicting you of, and saying, repent, leave that, trust me. 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:18.400 I died for that, I paid for that. 00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:20.000 I'll forgive you of that. 00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:21.359 Come to me. 00:23:23.119 --> 00:23:32.640 My friend that I was talking to, the conversation, the best point he made. 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:39.920 He said, You're telling me the second best blessing in life is a great marriage. 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:45.279 And you're telling me I gotta leave that to follow Christ. 00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:49.920 And I was glad to know he'd come to some of the things I'd spoken at and actually paid attention and listened. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:51.200 I mean, that was encouraging. 00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:54.000 I said, Well, listen, you you quoted me right. 00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:59.039 I said, the second best blessing in life is a great marriage. 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:08.640 The first best blessing in life is a spiritual marriage to the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:09.359 Amen. 00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:22.480 The forgiveness, the mercy, the cleansing, and then the intimacy that you can have with him, the friendship that you can have with him, the oneness and the life and the unity forever that you can have with him. 00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:26.319 And you've got to be willing to leave everything for that. 00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:31.680 I just want to let you know that friend of mine actually left everything to follow Christ. 00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:35.519 Christ saved him, Christ forgave him. 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:38.000 Christ will do the same for you. 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:39.759 Let's pray. 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:43.680 Lord Jesus, we love you. 00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:46.799 We don't love you enough. 00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:52.640 We don't love you as we should, but we do love you. 00:24:53.920 --> 00:25:05.440 I pray for every single person here, Lord, that is already trusted in you, that you would stir the affections of our heart. 00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:09.200 You would make us love you more. 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:14.400 You would make us appreciate what you have done for us more. 00:25:14.559 --> 00:25:23.039 And there would be a sense of shock and awe and wonder that we would be glad to leave whatever you call us to leave, to follow you more fully. 00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:26.880 And that we would want to turn and love others the way that you've loved us. 00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:38.559 And Lord, if I pray that if there's anyone hearing this that has not fully trusted in Christ, I pray that you would draw them to yourself this morning. 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:40.640 Pray this all in Christ's name. 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:41.440 Amen.