Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
At Faith Presbyterian Church we are seeking to exalt Jesus Christ the King and to exhibit and extend his Kingdom through worship, community, and mission.
Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
Luke 5:27-39; Feasting at Levi's House
Jason Sterling January 5, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL
Bulletin
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The following message is from Faith Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Join us on Sundays for our 8, 15, and 11 am worship services. For more information, visit us online at faith-pcaorg or download the Faith PCA app. Thank you for tuning in to Faith's podcast ministry.
Speaker 2:If you have a copy of God's Word this morning, turn with me to Luke, chapter 5. The text will be printed in your bulletin as well. We are starting a new sermon series this morning titled Meals with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Every gospel has a different angle, perspective or emphasis, and one of the unique things about the Gospel of Luke is the emphasis on the table. Meals and eating is very important in the gospel of Luke. One commentator, robert Karras, said in the gospel of Luke, jesus is either going to a meal at a meal or coming from a meal to a meal at a meal or coming from a meal and so we're going to look at those meals over the next several weeks through the gospel of Luke. We're going to look at these dinner parties, so to speak, and other of the passages that center around food. This morning we're going to look at Luke, chapter 5, as Jesus gathers around a table with Levi and his fellow tax collectors. Follow along with me. This is God's Word, luke, chapter 5, 27. We'll only read through verse 32 this morning. After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth and he said to him Follow me and leaving everything. He rose and followed him and Levi made him a great feast at his house and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with him. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples saying why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered them those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick? I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This is God's word. To call the righteous but sinners to repentance, this is God's Word. Let's pray and let's ask, as we always do before we look at the Bible, for God to come through His Spirit and to help us understand this passage and apply it to our hearts. Let's pray together, father. I pray for each person here this morning.
Speaker 2:We bring lots of stories into this room. Some of us have not been to church in years, but we're here it's 2025, and we want to get back in church and we feel uncomfortable or uneasy, perhaps, being here. Others, maybe they feel like their life is falling apart and they are in desperate need of help and they're hoping that maybe they can find help here this morning, help through the church. Others of us have been Christians for a long time, but we've lost our edge spiritually. There was a time when we sensed our need and were excited about the gospel, but our hearts have grown cold. Others, maybe, are angry because life has not turned out the way that they had planned, and we could go on and on and on with the stories in this place this morning, and I pray that you would help us all to see that we're a bigger mess than we realize, but that Jesus is better than we think. We need a word. We need a word from the outside. We need this word that you have brought before us this morning, and so teach us, encourage us by your spirit. I pray that every person would leave here with something they can hold on to Give us this morning, through this word and your spirit, a powerful encounter with Jesus. We do not want to leave here the same. Make it true In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 2:As I mentioned, it's the first Sunday of the new year of 2025, and the turn of a new year brings with it oftentimes, new Year's resolutions and, of course, a lot of those resolutions tend to include physical goals. As far as our physical health is concerned. Maybe we want to eat better. We want to exercise more. Those sorts of things often make their way into New Year's resolutions, but oftentimes too, particularly in the church. Or, if you're a Christian, you bring spiritual resolutions into the new year. Perhaps you have spiritual goals where there's a focus on your spiritual health. Maybe you've been away from church for years and this year you want to get back into church. Or maybe you've been a Christian forever but you're bored with Jesus and you need a reset, and you hope that happens in 2025. With Jesus and you need a reset and you hope that happens in 2025. Or maybe you're exploring Christianity and you're, this year, trying to figure out what you believe about the Bible, what you believe about Jesus, what you believe about Christianity.
Speaker 2:Wherever you find yourself this morning, whatever, whether you make resolutions or not, whether you've been a Christian for years or still exploring, I think one of the most important things we can do as Christians and as the church is at the beginning of the new year is to press reset and go back to the core of Christianity and ask foundational questions Like what does it really mean to be a Christian? Who is Jesus? Why did Jesus come in the world? What is the church supposed to be? Those are really vital and important questions. Even if you've been around the church for a long time, it's easy for the answers to those questions over time to get hijacked by other voices and other agendas. Well, jesus, in Luke chapter 5, around this dinner table and at this feast, gives us the answer to those important questions.
Speaker 2:This meal, in Luke 5, shows us three important things that should characterize Christianity and should characterize the church. The church is to be, if you're a note taker, a place of hope, a place of hospitality number two, thirdly, a place of healing Hope, hospitality and healing. Let's take those in turn this morning. First, the church is to be a place of hope. Did you notice? Three times it's emphasized the word tax collectors mentioned? 27, 29, 30. This group of people is being emphasized by Luke and the Pharisees are grumbling about the tax collectors. Pharisees are grumbling about the tax collectors because Jesus is eating with them. And so to really understand this passage, we have to understand something about tax collectors.
Speaker 2:In this day, tax collectors were considered moral untouchables. They were bottom of the barrel untouchables. They were bottom of the barrel. They were hated by society. They were considered traitors because they were Jews that sold out to the Roman government in order to collect huge taxes off their own people. They were also known and considered to be thieves because it was known that they would collect more taxes that were necessary. They would keep a healthy portion for themselves, so they were getting rich off of their own people. Tax collectors were despised because they had betrayed their own people for their own private interest. They were social outcasts, clashed together get this with robbers and murderers, and in Jewish law they were considered beast unclean. Get the picture. Tax collectors were the lowest in this society and the problem and the reason why the Pharisees are grumbling, it's not because Jesus was at a party.
Speaker 2:The Pharisees went to parties all the time. They were very social, it was part of their culture. The problem was not with the party. The problem was with the guest list. Jesus is hanging out with the wrong kinds of people. Jesus is hanging out with the wrong kinds of people. Jesus is not hanging out and eating with the movers and shakers. He's not hanging out with the good religious elite and the good people and religious people of the day and the social elite. No, jesus is hanging out with the down and outers. Jesus is at a party with the people who did not get invited to any other party. He's at this party with people who don't have the right connections because they don't know the right people. They aren't rich enough, they aren't pretty enough, they aren't skinny enough and they are considered moral failures. And the people that Jesus ate with is one of the main things that rubbed the Pharisees and the religious leaders. That got under their skin and rubbed them the wrong way. One commentator said in Luke's gospel Jesus got himself killed because of the way he ate.
Speaker 2:And I read this week about the author, philip Yancey. And Philip Yancey has a friend who is a recovering alcoholic and his friend once told him when I'm late for church, people turn around and stare at me with frowns of disapproval. He said I get the clear message that I am not as responsible as they are. He says, but when I'm late for an AA meeting, the meeting comes to a screeching halt and everyone jumps up to hug me and welcome me because they realize my lateness may be a sign that I almost didn't make it. When I show up, it proves that my desperate need for them went out over my desperate need for alcohol. Friends, the church is to be a community of abounding grace to sinners and tax collectors and to people that are barely hanging on and can barely make it through the door. The church is to be a place that comes to a screeching halt and people jump up and they hug you, no matter where you are and where you find yourself when you walk through the door. The church is to be a place where people take a deep breath when they walk through the doors, in which they find relief, not a place where you tense up and have to brace yourself just to walk in. We are to be a place. The church is a place where people sprint to when they're at their worst and lowest. It's not a place to avoid until we have a life that's somehow Instagrammable.
Speaker 2:I was at lunch with a friend a couple of weeks ago and he told me this story about an older gentleman. He's passed away but he was in his 80s and this guy had been around Birmingham forever. He was very successful and accomplished in the community and he said one time a greeter at his church. This guy was actively involved in church and he walked up to the greeter and he said are y'all still letting sinners in here? And of course the man was saying that in a fun, joking kind of way, but it was also very profound, because the man was acknowledging one who he was, but he was also acknowledging who the church is supposed to be friends.
Speaker 2:The day sinners are not welcomed in the church is the day when the church stops being the church. The church should be a welcoming place for sinners and I'm all for when we get our new building and we get a new sign out here, that we put a sign up that says Faith, presbyterian Church sinners welcomed here. Because this meal with Jesus and Luke, chapter 5, with Levi and his tax collector buddies, reveals the reality of God's grace and hope for sinners who are at their worst and who are barely hanging on. This shows us that you cannot be too bad for Jesus, that Jesus is a friend of sinners and he welcomes sinners to his table. Thank goodness, friends, jesus is way more generous and gracious than you think he is. Secondly, the church is to be a place of hospitality Verse 29,.
Speaker 2:And Levi made him, meaning Jesus, a great. The word actually is mega, don't you love that? Made him a mega feast in his house, and there was a large company, a mega group of tax collectors with them, and so this was not a small gathering, this was not a handful of people, this was a shindig, this was a blowout, this was a bash. And Jesus is at this party and if you look at verse 29, the party's actually for him. He's actually right in the middle of it, and I point that out because often we think Jesus is always highly introverted, always doing Bible studies in his house alone and always having these deep, really deep spiritual conversations.
Speaker 2:He certainly did those things, but apparently, if you read the Gospels, and particularly this passage, jesus is not a social killjoy. He was very social, very relatable and earthy and approachable, and I think we could make the case, even from this passage, that he was invited to and actually showed up to parties that we wouldn't be caught at or seen at or even comfortable in attending. You see, the Gospels tell us that Jesus came into the world. Yes, to seek and to save the lost. To serve, not to be served. That was his mission. But how would that mission be accomplished? Luke 7, verse 34 says the Son of man has come. How would you finish that verse If, not knowing it, you might say came preaching or serving, or healing or saving, but that's not what it says. Luke 7, 34 said the Son of man came eating and drinking. He was so social and was at so many social feasts and gatherings that Jesus and his disciples were actually accused think about this of being gluttons and drunkards. Jesus, you see it all the way through the gospels, you see it all the way through the book of Acts.
Speaker 2:In the early church hit Jesus as evangelism and discipleship strategy and method for reaching people was a long meal around the table. It was hospitality. And please don't miss, jesus was single. Oftentimes we think of hospitality and we think couples or we think families. No, and I think that is very encouraging Because if you want to join God's mission and be on mission with Jesus in this world, you don't have to have spectacular gifts, you don't have to have a certain relationship status, you don't have to have all this Bible knowledge and all of those sorts of things. You just simply need recipes, you need food, you need drink, you need to practice hospitality. And again, you see it in the early church.
Speaker 2:How did the early church get off the ground? It wasn't through programs. There's not anything wrong with programs. You know what. It was through Feasting. It was through the table, it was through hospitality, through having people yes, word and spirit but practically speaking, through having people in your home through meals. Why was that so powerful? Why is that so powerful? Because meals represent so much more than food, don't they? We know this. Meals in the table represents friendship and community and belonging. It's a place where you reveal who you are, where people get to know you and you get to know them and you get to hear people's stories.
Speaker 2:There's an article in the New York Times it's several years old now, but it was by David Brooks and the title of the article was the Power of the Dinner Table and it was about this family and their son went to the public school system in Washington DC and he had a friend who always came to school hungry, and so he decided to invite his friend over for dinner, and that friend had a friend who had a friend, who had a friend. So that now, on Thursday nights, there are 15 to 20 teenagers crammed around this dinner table in this home and they're gathered around this table and they are doing what we do around the table they laugh, they cry, they tell stories, they sing, they celebrate graduations. One 21-year-old who came one week said it was the first time since she was 11 years old that she had sat at a dinner table. Another said this was the warmest place I can ever imagine. And yet another said the people around this table get this. They see me and I matter.
Speaker 2:And in this article, bill McMillan, who was a veteran youth activist, is asked often like what are the programs out there, the hot programs that turn a kid's life around? And listen to what he says. I still haven't seen one program change one kid's life. What changes people and what changes kids is relationship and belonging. Someone who is willing to walk with them through the shadow of the valley of adolescence and stay with them there. The power of hospitality, the power of the table, the power of a meal it was the way Jesus accomplished his mission on earth of a meal. It was the way Jesus accomplished his mission on earth. It's what made the early church so attractive to outsiders in the unbelieving world and I believe it's how the church today is going to accomplish its mission and reach the next generation with the gospel. Thirdly and finally, the church is to be a place of healing.
Speaker 2:So how did levi and jesus get connected? How did he end up at this meal and at this feast. Look at verse 27. I love this. Levi is in the middle of his hated profession and calling in the middle of his sin and it says Jesus sees him. And Jesus calls him and says follow me, levi. You see it? There drops everything, follows Jesus.
Speaker 2:The very next scene is Levi makes a great feast at his house. There's lots of tax collectors and sinners in attendance. Where did these tax collectors come from? Well, levi invited them. They were Levi's friends, they were his buddy and Levi had been healed by Jesus and he wanted his friends to experience and meet the man who had changed his life. Did you know that's what we want for our church? Did you know that's what we want for our church? We want to be a place that is so compelled by Jesus and what he has done for us and how he's changed our life that you can't help but invite your friends. You can't help but invite your neighbors and your coworkers and your classmates to come and meet this Jesus who has changed your life and healed you. Verse 30.
Speaker 2:We see someone else at this party and it's a group called the Pharisees and they were the religious elite of the day. They followed all the rules, they believed all the right things, they did all the right things and they are confused. Here they come up on this party. They're confused because Jesus is holy and Jesus, if he is who he says, he is, god with skin on then he should not be eating with sinners and tax collectors, because in their minds, good people don't hang out and eat with bad people. And the Pharisees thought that keeping the law was one of their primary duties or was the primary duty in religious life. And most of the laws, if you read the Gospels, had to do with unclean things. And one of their rules stated get this that a Pharisee could not hang out with a non-Pharisee because if the non-Pharisee had accidentally, accidentally broken one of their rules, they would be contaminated and unclean simply by being with them and eating with them. And here's what I want you to see Is that their attempts at holiness actually made people hate them? It actually made people and pushed them away and actually kept them from entering into relationship with other people.
Speaker 2:Is Jesus concerned with holiness? Yes, 100%, absolutely. But his concern for holiness led him in a completely different direction. It led him towards people, towards sinners and tax collectors, those who were sick, because Jesus knew that it was his holiness, that was the thing that was going to make other people holy. Jesus draws near to you in your sin and brokenness in order to heal you and make you holy. And did you know? That should be our paradigm too. As the church, we want to be known as a church that moved not away from brokenness and sinful people towards brokenness and sinful people, so that the love of Jesus might flow out of us, so that everything around us starts to flourish and thrive and experience healing and restoration.
Speaker 2:Verse 31 and 32, jesus reveals who he is and why he came, and he does it through using the illustration. Those who are well need no physician, but those who are sick. I've come to call the righteous to repentance. I've come not for the righteous, but for sinners, to call them to repentance. And so his point here is that if you're not sick, you don't need a doctor. Think about that. Who goes to the hospital? You don't need a doctor. Think about that. Who goes to the hospital? Who goes to see a doctor? You go when you're sick. You go when you need healing, and so the implication here in Luke, chapter 5, and in this illustration, is that everyone that's what Jesus is saying, is spiritually sick with sin and needs to be healed.
Speaker 2:That is the greatest problem we think about, all the problems you have in this world. Jesus is saying the greatest problem in this room and with you this morning is your sin. And Jesus is saying I am the only one. And Jesus is saying I am the only one, I'm the only doctor that can heal you of that disease and that sickness. The only people that get healthy, jesus says, are the people who trust in me, in my life, death and resurrection, and who follow me. He is saying to sinners and tax collectors and to the Pharisees and he's saying to us this morning you're all the same. You're either running away from Jesus, like the tax collectors and sinners, by breaking all the rules, or you're running away from Jesus, like the Pharisees, by keeping all the rules. But you know who was in the biggest danger at this party. Don't miss this. Those in the biggest danger at this party it was not the sinners and tax collectors, it was the smug, know-it-all Pharisees who thought they were healthy and strong and thought they didn't need a doctor, no matter how good you think you are, no matter how good you think you are, no matter how bad you think you are, jesus says you're sick with sin and you need a Savior.
Speaker 2:Did you know there's only two organizations in the world that you have to be bad to get into? The first one is the mafia. The second one is the church. Seriously, do you ever think about that? Think about the vows the new members just stood up here and took before you. Question number one Do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure? In other words, do you know you're sick and need a Savior?
Speaker 2:To those this morning who are coming back to church for the first time in years, luke 5 is an invitation for you to come home. Jesus does not condemn you. Jesus welcomes you to his table. Maybe this morning you're coming back to church for the first time and you've had a really bad experience with the church in the past. Maybe you have been burned by the church. First of all, thank you for coming. Second of all, I'm so sorry that you've had that experience with the church. First of all, thank you for coming. Second of all, I'm so sorry that you've had that experience with the church. We are a messy bunch. Please pray for us. We desperately want to be a church that lives out the realities of the gospel and lives out Jesus's love for us in community. And we would love for you to join us.
Speaker 2:And if you're here this morning and you're exploring Christianity and maybe you're thinking I just want a completely different life, look at this meal. Levi followed Jesus and Jesus gave him a completely different life. He radically changed him and healed his brokenness. And Jesus can do that for you, too, this morning. Maybe you've been a Christian for years and years and years. And if you're a Christian this morning, have you been a Christian so long that you have forgotten what it looks like and what it feels like to be in the tax booth? You see, the only way the church is going to be what we're called to be, the only way we're going to be a place of healing and hope and hospitality. Healing and hope and hospitality is when we identify ourselves with Levi, when we go back to the tax booth and we remember Jesus' gracious and compassionate call to us when we were dead in our sins.
Speaker 2:And so, wherever you find yourself this morning, we all need the same thing. We all need Jesus Desperately. We need the same thing. We all need Jesus Desperately. We need to encounter Him, and so I'm inviting you back this winter as we encounter Jesus through these meals in the Gospel of Luke. Will you come and join us? I hope you will. Let's pray, father. Thank you for moving towards us. Would you forgive us for our pride and for thinking that we don't need a doctor? Holy Spirit, I pray that you would come and make our church a place of hope and healing and hospitality, and that is something that we cannot do unless you show up and work through your spirit. And so would you come, holy Spirit, and do that in our midst as we move into 2025. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.