Mark 2:13–17 with Pastor Deane Woods

Well, good evening, everybody.

It's a thrill and a joy to see you, to meet you.

It's been quite some time.

Basically, six months have passed since Marg and I were commissioned from the church to go out and to share in the pastorate of a church at Orange, and it's a delight tonight to have some whom we not only ministered with and to, but have had the joy of discipling and to let a little secret out to share concerning believers' baptism.

But more on that a little later on.

Welcome and may God bless you.

Real good, as they say in America.

Mark sends her greetings.

She's not doing well.

She's in hospital.

She tried to get here both this morning and tonight.

After it wasn't possible this morning, she thought that she would accompany me tonight, but she sends her love and greetings from her hospital bed.

Thank you for your prayers.

The second thing I want to say is a thank you for the privilege of sharing in the series in the Gospel of Mark.

The passage allotted to me tonight is so very, very brief, short, to the point, direct, challenging, and I'm going to wait for you to look for the reference, Mark chapter 2, and from verses 13 to 17.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

And if I don't wait, but just simply read, dear friends, it takes less than 60 seconds to read.

But we want to unpack those 60 seconds of dynamite.

And even though you say, well, it's about the call of Levi, the tax collector, that counts me out.

I'm no treasurer, I'm no accountant, I've got nothing to do.

I can hardly know what to do with whatever God has given me at the moment.

No, that's not the point.

You see, dear friends, this book is all about the Lord Jesus.

And if we're going to have a grip on the word of God, it's no good just taking thumb and pita pointer and say, I'm going to hold it because it only takes a little thing to go like that.

For years I memorized the scriptures, started off with cardboard written with a BIRO, the verses of scripture.

That's how I began to learn.

But then I went to Navigators Topical Memory System.

And you'll remember if you know anything about navigators, you study or you read the word, then you study the word, then you memorize the word, then you meditate on the word, and then you share the word.

You see, it's when you get a good grip, a Tarzan's grip on the word of God.

And that's why this little pericope, this little story, this little account, this little vignette that takes less than 60 seconds to read as we unpack it.

I don't want to make it complicated, but to the challenge as we come to it, noting just its brevity, the appeal would be, brothers and sisters, it's all about Jesus.

Let's get to know him in the reading and studying of his word and the application of it day by day.

So turn with me to Mark chapter 2, and we begin in verse 13.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

There are two other passages that record the same of that which we read.

One is in Matthew 9, and the other is in Luke and the fifth chapter.

I'm going to be referring to those chapters, Matthew 9 and Luke chapter 5, because they add certain things to this fast moving story, which is one of many in Mark's gospel.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

So Mark chapter 2 and from verse 13.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

Have you found it?

Press your stopwatch, here we go.

Then he, that is Jesus, went out again by the sea, and all the multitude came to him, and he taught them.

As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office.

And he said to him, Follow me.

So he arose and followed him.

Now it happened as he was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him.

And when the scribes and the Pharisees, some manuscripts, the scribes of the Pharisees, saw him, Jesus eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, How is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.

And the other accounts, including this one, adds the words, I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

As we unpack the passage in all its simplicity, yet so sublime with spiritual challenge and authority, we need the Holy Spirit who caused these words to be written through a writer, John Mark, with Paul on a missionary journey, but returned home.

He'd come from a well healed home in Jerusalem.

You read that in John Tw Acts chapter twelve and verse twelve.

Later on, Paul calls him and said he's profitable for me to the ministry.

And after Paul dies, Peter tucks him under his arm, Peter who denied the Lord Jesus.

And when we get to the end of Mark's gospel, it is the longest account of Peter who denied his Lord.

Why?

Because I'm sure, as Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 5, 13 and 14, he brings greetings from Mark, his son.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

He had discipled him.

And so we have this package of the first gospel written of the synoptic gospels.

That is to say, the Gospels that view Jesus from this perspective in Matthew, he's the King of the Jews.

In this Gospel, Mark, he's the servant minister.

But we're going to find something else in the text tonight about this servant ministry of the Lord Jesus.

And then in Matthew, we'll find not only he's King of the Jews, in Mark, he's not only the servant who suffers by going to the cross that we might be saved.

And then Luke, of course, he's the Son of Man.

So with that as background, let's pray and ask that the Spirit of God would teach us all about Jesus.

Let's pray.

Our loving Father, we thank you for the evening hour whereby we can come and that we can share together as a congregation around the Word of God.

And we're conscious, Lord, as we read this short story, this brief account, that some deep, deep things are going on.

The life is changed.

Criticisms come.

But we thank you for the message of the Lord Jesus, who came to seek and to save sinners, and who comes and calls those whom he will to be with him, to cleanse them and make them whom he wants them to be.

Father, bring our thoughts into every captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Teach us as we sit now at the feet of the Lord Jesus.

We are coming, Lord, humbly to listen.

For we read in these scriptures, but not in this passage, this is my Son, hear him.

Help us to listen, help us to believe, and by your grace obey.

We ask it for the glory of the Lord Jesus and the fulfillment of your purposes in causing us to gather at this particular time in this place, and for those who are listening or perhaps watching in other places as the video goes out.

We ask it and say thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, dear friends, as we've read the scriptures, I took a little longer than 60 seconds, obviously, to make emphasis.

We've prayed for the Holy Spirit's guidance and ministry that Christ would be glorified.

And you may say, Well, I think I've got my hand on the whole of this story.

It's just five or six verses.

It's all about a calling.

It's all about the calling.

He happens to be a tax collector, but I'm not a tax collector.

I've got nothing to do with money.

But you'll notice that the text says, as we begin, then he, Jesus, went out again by the sea.

You see, Mark puts these stories together, guided by the Spirit of God, like as if taking a precious pearl, each one so intricately and beautifully formed, and he strings them together, and the net result is a beautiful necklace of pearls.

It's not until you put them all together do you get the complete picture.

You see, this is a fast moving gospel.

I don't know whether you like stories that are fast moving, action-packed, multifaceted stories.

You might have seen films that are like that.

I was going to mention a few, but that might give the wrong impression.

But you get the picture of what I'm saying.

Maybe your style and preference is a gripping mystery plot where detail details are unfolding piece by piece, leaving you as the hearer or the observer to string them together and so get the whole picture with all their glorious beauty, like the string of pearls we mentioned.

Or to adapt the style of the story.

Do you like mystery stories where you have to follow the plot and seek to observe?

And as you do that, you're making your decisions.

Oh, I see what's going on.

Then suddenly at the end, the whodunit man, the totally unexpected one, is revealed.

Well, dear friends, it's something of these three aspects that we read in the Gospel of Mark.

For there's only one hero in the Gospel.

From where your Bible is open, flip back one page and look at the first verse of chapter one.

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark is the only one of the synoptic gospels that begins in such a dramatic way.

And right up front he says, I've got good news.

And this good news centers on one person.

And I have a list of ten observations I've made as I've gone through the book and read it and read it and read it and seek to understand not merely the style of how it's put together, but it's all about the good news.

And if you like fast-moving stories, you take time to read the 16 chapters and you'll find, and one of the things you'll find, there's a little expression immediately, immediately, immediately, immediately.

Sometimes it begins a sentence, two words, and immediately.

Do you know in the first two chapters that we've got here, there are at least 11 expressions of that term immediately.

Because what is Mark doing?

He's seeking with the putting together of these stories, these vignettes, these word pictures of historical events.

It's all about Jesus.

And Mark is saying there's only one hero in this message of good news.

And I'm sharing this.

This is the first gospel that is written.

It's written for Gentiles, possibly written from Rome, and with Roman uh people in view.

Remember, of course, that Israel, the Jews, were under the iron heel of Rome.

And so he begins with this good news.

And so tonight we want to say right up front, in this fast-moving story, it's not until you get to the passion narratives at the end, and I don't know how long this is scheduled for, not the sermon, but I mean the series.

But you see, it's not until you get up there that the fast-paced move that is moving fast.

Mark wants to get us as quickly as he can to the cross, because this is the good news, and this is the good news not merely the Jews need, but for the Gentiles as well.

And so he says, This is the good news about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And as you'll see, he's the Son of God, the Christ, the anointed one.

My dear friends, this book, this good news of the gospel, is with one hero and one hero only.

And it's all about Jesus.

So let's talk about him.

So if I was doing a simple outline, we've got people who are writing notes because that's what they did up at Orange, they would do one-word outline.

So if you're doing a one-word outline, you say, This is the call.

That's two words, but the word call.

And the call, what does it lead to?

It leads to a celebration because it's a celebration of what happened in Levi's heart.

And then the last thing, there's a lot of criticism.

So you say, well, it's all about a call, it's all about a celebration, people having a party.

No, it's not.

They're the people, that's the context of the events, it's all about him.

And I want to suggest tonight that so often we do not look for the street or those clues that point us to the Lord Jesus.

In my own devotions, the first thing I ask in the three questions every time I read, what does this teach me about the Lord?

What does it teach me about God?

And so tonight, in turning this little pericope, this little story, this little vignette on its head, it's not about those who were involved in it, but the one who's the central figure that must occupy our attention because he's none other, none other than the focus of the gospel.

He's the Son of God, He's the Anointed One, the Christ.

And would you notice at the end of our reading, it's implied another title.

Listen.

When the scribes and the Pharisees saw him eating the ta and the tax collectors and sinners with them, they said to the disciples, How is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?

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 didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

And so tonight, if we were to put a title to the message, it's Jesus, the great physician, and it's all about him.

All about him and what he's done, not merely for Levi.

But dear friends, without pointing to anyone in particular, the multiplicity, it's all about him who came to die for his own people.

I want you to notice as we begin, then he went out again by the sea, and all the multitude came to him, Jesus, and he taught them.

Verse 14, and as he passed by, notice the next two words.

He saw Jesus is looking for those for whom he's come to die.

Chapter 10 and verse 45 of this gospel will say he came not to be served or ministered to, but to serve, to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

And this little story, this little vignette, this little pericope, is about one whom God saw, whom Jesus having come out, he's in the town of Capernaum in the north.

And he's come out of the house where a paralytic man has been taken by four, and that was preached on, I believe, last week.

They couldn't get in to see Jesus, but we've got to get this one in great need to the great physician.

They couldn't get in to see him, so they must have got up the side steps on the flat roof of those Middle Eastern homes, and very interesting, they unloofed the roof.

Just imagine four people, they'd have to keep in step.

They're united in their purpose, and there's only one person who can fix this man.

Yes, he's a paralytic, and he's on a palette mattress.

How would you lift a man who's paralytic on a mattress up staircase?

The ones in front have to low down, and the ones up the back they have to hold up, otherwise, there's a disaster.

And off he goes.

It's a picture of united fellowship in taking folk to the proximity to hear and in that instance to see Jesus.

And it says in the text they until unroofed the roof where he was.

They didn't start on that corner when Jesus was over in that corner.

They were discerning where Jesus.

Do we do that in getting people to come at least to hear the message of the gospel?

So that's the first thing.

And this introduces us to another characteristic of Mark's gospel, dear friends.

He sandwiches like bread on the outside three stories or three vignettes, three pictures.

And here's the one between Mark II and one to twelve, and the second one.

From verse 13 to 17, and the story of the wine and new wineskins, he puts them together and he's focusing on the fact of this Lord Jesus who came and saw, and tonight he knows every one of us here sitting in this auditorium and he sees us as we are.

You imagine Levi, he's a tax collector.

And without going into too much detail, though I've done a lot of research on what exactly took place, it was a situation where they opted to put in a contract to the Romans.

Listen, the Jewish people rightly considered tax collectors as collaborators, traitors, because they worked for the Roman government.

They had the force of the Roman soldiers behind them to make people pay their taxes.

They were most visible Jewish collaborators with Roman.

The Jewish people rightly considered them as extortioners because they could keep whatever they overcollected.

They had to put in their contract, and the one who probably gave the best deal to the Romans got the contract.

For example, many tax collectors might want to have the tax contract for a city like Capernaum.

The Romans awarded the contract to the highest bidder.

The man collected the taxes, paid the Romans what he promised, and they kept the remainder.

And so there was a lot of incentive for tax collectors to overcharge and to cheat any way they could.

It was pure profit for them.

Now the son of Alpheus, he's from an Orthodox Jewish family.

And he chose that he would become one of those that I've just described.

And you can imagine he'd be treated like a leper amongst his people because he's betrayed us.

You could never become a judge or in a position of authority in terms of once you have sought to become a tax collector.

So you imagine the people seeing him on the street.

Do you think he'd look them in the eye?

Do you think they would be going up with a handshake and saying today, if we would use the lingua franca of our language?

Shalom in theirs?

No.

He was treated and would be treated like any other tax collector, a leper.

But Jesus saw him.

And dear friend, tonight, he sees you and me, and he knows.

I'm not saying that we're sitting at a receipt of custom, and please don't think it was just a little flat table with a few coins on it.

This was a big deal.

You go to Israel, and I can picture Kafir Naum, Kafir village, Nahum, the village of Nahum.

That's where Capernaum is, up on the northern part of that Kineret lake.

Kineret, because the Sea of Galilee is shaped like a harp, and Kineret means a harp.

And you go from Tugbar, where Jesus broke the bread by the sea, but he goes out of this house at Capernaum, and there's a huge synagogue.

Yes, it's from a later century, but it would have been the place where the synagogue was.

And it's the end of the Via Maris, the way of the road by the sea.

It's strategically placed because the road goes through to the north and across to the other side.

The Ghadarians, you remember that story, Mark chapter 5.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

So it's a strategic, not just a little table, it is a booth.

And if you want to read and to go through all the things that were taxed, there would be 10% on certain items.

I won't go through the details, that's irrelevant.

I don't want to bog down with detail.

It's all about him.

This is the whole background.

You see, he sold his soul for what he wanted to do.

And he sitted at the receipt of custom.

And suddenly Jesus sees him.

And the first thing that I'd notice here is the authority, the authority of the Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ.

And what does he do as he looks on him?

He knows him like he knew Nathaniel under the fig tree that's recorded in the first chapter of John.

He knows everything about you and me.

There's nothing hidden that will not be revealed.

And Jesus saw him.

It was a moment in time of destiny.

And I want to suggest tonight, dear friend, there could be someone here.

We've been praying.

It's a time of destiny for you.

Or you're not sitting at a tax collector's table, but you've been pursuing your own way.

And the Lord Jesus comes.

And with a word of authority, not because I raised my voice.

You see, it's not to do.

The power is never in the preacher, the sower.

It's never in the soil.

It's always in the seed of God's word that goes into your heart.

And through this text tonight, the Lord Jesus would say to the hearts of us all, follow me.

It's in the present imperative, that is to say, don't just say, okay, I'll go that way.

And the word to follow is always in the New Testament in this context a discipleship term.

It's made up of two words in the original language, to be on the same road as.

It's not merely to follow behind like a little puppy dog, like that.

No, it is to keep in step with the one who, with the authority's command, says, follow me and keep following.

Dear friend, are you continuing to follow tonight?

Or has his voice become far distant?

You say, What voice?

In the word.

How much time?

I listened this week when someone asked Professor John Lennox, Sir, what are your final words, your with respect literally at the end of your time?

And John Lennox went on to say what I'm going to paraphrase.

We spend so much time, and I do use the telephone, I do use all the modern uh media platforms, etc., not as good as some of you, because I'm of another generation, and I've got sausage-like fingers and a thick thumb, but you understand what I'm saying.

And he said, we spend countless time.

And John Lex went on to say that he and his colleague in varsity days decided, though they enjoyed the philosophy and the mathematics and all those things that were their vocational calling in a professional sense, they decided that one thing that they would preach at one another's funeral.

And John thought, being older than his colleague, he would be the one to go first.

But the other fellow came to him one day and said, I have a mass the size of an orange.

You're to take my funeral first.

Brothers and sisters, the message that we share, see, people will forget jokes.

And I am so appreciative as we shared this week in the pastor's collective meeting on Tuesday.

My brother, my fellow traveller said, Preach as if it was the message to someone in ICU who was on their last.

Yes, it's not to say we can't have a smile, a joke, and a situation that is light-hearted.

You don't have to be moving around as if you're weaned on a dill pickle.

But the point is, Jesus saw him.

And with a word of authority, he says, Follow me.

Now that authority, if you trace through the first two chapters so far, is used several times.

And I notice the time gets away so quickly, so I'll leave you to go through.

But I point out in chapter two, where this healing of the paralytic man let down through the roof, it says in uh verse uh eighteen, uh verse ten, I should say, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power, the words authority.

That is to say, it's not merely strength, as in muscular strength.

Take, for example, a little five-foot whatever in the old language, a policewoman can go out the middle of Pitt Street and hold up a hand like that.

Physically, she couldn't stop an electric bike going by, you understand?

But she has all the authority by raising a hand, and that's the picture.

Here's the Lord Jesus, and it's the good news about him.

He's the Son of God, he's the Son of Man who on earth can forgive sins.

There's no second chance in another place, for it's appointed unto man once to die.

Hebrews 9, verse 27 and 28.

Hebrews 9:27

So, my brothers and sisters, the first thing we see is the authority of the Lord Jesus.

And the second thing I want you to note if you're taking the outline, the power of his gospel.

We've described what his authority was and from whence it came.

He had all the authority of the triune God, of the eternal Lord.

And now he comes.

And the power of his gospel, of which Paul would later write, and you can now quote I'm not ashamed of the gospel, the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus, for it is the power.

The word in Greek literally is the word from which we get dynamite.

Boom! It destroys our self-aggrandishment, it destroys all our would-be excuses before a thrice holy God.

And we're not ashamed tonight to proclaim that good news of the gospel about the all authority of Christ and the power of the gospel that is power unto salvation to those who believed.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.

And here's Levi.

Levi the tax collector, called divinely, being a moment of destiny.

And what happened?

He left that booth of the tax collector.

Don't worry about what happened with all the money that was there.

It would have been stacked.

It's like going to Travel X or one of the equivalents in our shopping malls.

You get the picture.

That's irrelevant to this main story.

The one hero is Jesus.

And what you need to hear and what you need to know is that he sees with an all-searching eye.

His call is authoritative.

Come follow me, be on the same road, be on the same page, have the priorities that I have in your life, leave whatever your life was behind and come follow me.

And he left it all.

And was all by the grace of God.

And so, in this message of the good news of the gospel, that incorporates a divine call that also ensures a divine cleansing made possible through the shed blood of Christ, the servant of God, the Son of Man, the Son of God, and who will be revealed here as the great physician.

For he came on a divine mission, not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

You see, a physician, if he's going to deal what he needs to deal with with sick people, needs to be amongst them.

And so when Jesus says those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, what he's implying is that these self-righteous Pharisees and scribes, who with their criticisms and all the religiosity of doing what the law said, they failed to see.

Could I interpose just for a second by going to Matthew 9?

When we read Matthew 9 and the identical parallel text, it says, as he quotes from Hosea chapter 6 and verse 6, which says, where the Lord desires mercy and not sacrifice.

Hosea 6 · chapter mention

Matthew, I'm saying Matthew, because Levi is Matthew, anticipating the third point, you see, when Matthew, Levi writes his gospel, his name's changed.

And he goes back to a Hebrew name.

And do you know what Matthew is?

I won't say it in the original Hebrew.

It is gift of God.

You see, Levi had been on the graft, but now he's changed.

And he's the gift of God.

And what does he do?

He uses what God had given him by way of talent.

You know as well as I do that those who deal with figures, numbers, accounts are usually systematic.

They write in columns.

And when you come to the Gospel of Matthew, you'll find a repetition in its style of the five books of Moses.

There's narrative, then there's discourse.

Narrative, storytelling, discourse.

Just like the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, he's reflecting in style.

And you read the Gospel of Matthew, and Matthew, inspired by the Spirit, wrote it.

But you see, between the call and the transformation, the change, and we're seeing what a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart.

And the change came to him.

So what Matthew does, Levi, as he's still called here in the text of Mark, he's following Jesus.

But you know what he does?

He has a celebratory conversion party.

We don't know whether it was the same night.

I think it probably would take longer than a few hours after he left whatever was on that booth table.

But the text goes on in verse 10, or verse 9 and 10, so he arose and followed him, and it happened as he was dining in Levi's house that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him.

Dear friends, when you read the account in Luke chapter 5, listen to what it says.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

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.

So he left all, rose up, and followed him.

Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house.

There were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them, and their scribes and the Pharisees complained against the disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors?

And so you see the picture.

And uh, though the scribes and Pharisees weren't invited, if you know the style of the Middle Eastern houses, there's usually a courtyard, and by some means the word had got around, and these Pharisees and scribes were either in the courtyard or looking within, and they somehow get the attention of those who were enjoying the celebrations, and they say to them, Why is Jesus eating with sinners?

And it doesn't take long for the message to get to Jesus, and that's where the rest of our text goes on to say, when Jesus heard it, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Dear friends, what's going to happen?

Let's pause for a moment.

Jesus is saying that those without him are desperately sick.

And he now, as the great physician, has come to heal them.

If only the scribes and Pharisees would see themselves as God sees them, because God desires mercy and not the perfunctory exercises of religiosity, of doing this in the correct way, and not thinking in terms of their relationship with God at all.

So the story is all about Jesus, his authority, the power of his gospel, and the fact that he is the great physician who came to call sinners to repentance.

And that's the wonderful thing.

The third point that we make, then, is that this is an illustrative example of God's grace, providence, and purpose in transforming whom he calls, cleanses, and changes to a new life and for a ministry for his glory, besides being for their good.

We're not told in the text what happened after that, except that here is the tax collector confronted by Jesus, called divinely to follow him where he would have him go.

His heart is changed by the power of God's gospel, the good news, because as he came in response of faith to follow Christ, his life was changed, transformed.

As we were heard tonight in Romans twelve, as David read it between the verses.

That we sung.

And so I want to just say three final things.

Because though you may not identify with being a tax collector, please, please understand the authority of Jesus in calling you.

For he is the Son of God.

He is the anointed one of Christ.

He is the Son of Man who came to seek and to save that which is lost that we read of in Luke's gospel.

He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give his life a ransom for many.

And he comes now as the great physician, no ordinary GP, general practitioner, but the great, the great physician, the only answer to your need and mine if we're going to spend eternity in God's presence.

And so, brothers and sisters, notice all this was the grace of God.

God in grace, may I put it in terms of the overview of the scriptures in terms of the Lord Jesus?

Let me just read it to you.

You see, before time began and eternity past, the triune Godhead agreed to send Jesus.

He's promised in the book of Genesis and through the books of the Old Testament as the Messiah who would come.

He is revealed as he's revealed here in the Gospels in various ways and using of various titles.

He's preached in the Acts of the Apostles.

He's explained in the Epistles of the New Testament.

And he's on the throne as the king in the book of the Revelation.

And then finally we see him King of Kings and Lord of Lords in eternity in the future.

You see, this book is all about him with all his authority, the underscoring of his power in the expression of the gospel, and the potential, because in grace and with divine providence, he comes and calls whom he will to follow him.

And we thank him for that divine providence, that he has a plan.

And the plan for Matthew, Levi, was that the gift that God had given to him, yes, it was transformed.

He was good at numbers.

And what we have as we finish in Matthew and chapter nine, the fact that his name is changed.

He designates himself as Jesus passed on from there.

I'm reading from Matthew 9 and verse 9.

He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office.

And Matthew identifies that he's the one who, under God in his divine sovereignty, was used to present Jesus as the king of the Jews to the Jewish people.

For he's met him in his vocation as a tax collector, and he's transformed by the grace of God, but underscoring the providence of God in that time, in that place where Jesus applied that message.

And here's the application as we conclude.

So the man, the person whom God changes, can so echo that which has happened in his heart in telling others the same message, the same gospel.

And that's what I learned from a little story, one of many.

In fact, those expressions, and immediately, and immediately, and immediately, are deliberately designed, I believe.

Hey, what's going to happen next?

You see, this is a fast-moving story, and Mark can't wait to get us to the cross.

And that's where we end tonight.

For it's at the foot of the cross when we see him with the eye of faith.

Jesus was made sin for us there, and he paid it all.

So tonight I'm asking, I'm declaring, I'm echoing the words of the Lord Jesus.

As he comes in this instance to Levi, so he comes to every one of us and with authority says, Follow me.

And the question is, have we responded?

Are we continuing?

Because God has a plan for our lives for those who've been saved, have been saved to serve.

Let's pray.

And we would ask, Lord, that as we move into the week, these words will come echoing to our hearts again and again in terms of our response.

I surrender all.

Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.

We ask it and say thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.