Luke 5:1-39 & 6:1-19 - A King is Needed

Church, we will be in Luke chapter 5 this morning.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

If you can open in your Bibles to Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's some on the welcome table.

Encourage you to grab that for the service.

If you don't have one at all, you're welcome to take that.

That's our gift to you.

We want to be people of the word.

Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

We'll be covering a lot of ground this morning.

Luke 5 through chapter 6, verses 19, Lord willing.

Before we dive into this, let's pray to the Lord.

Gracious Father, we praise you for your word.

You are a God who reveals himself through his creation, and then through his Son, through the Word given to us by the Spirit.

We thank you that it is your word, that we might know how to live and how to act, how to follow you, that we would know what truth is, that we would not be a hopeless people or a wandering people.

We would be people who know the truth, humbly and graciously telling others about the truth of your word.

Bless our time as we open it.

May it minister to us.

May it cut and reveal where we need our sin and our nature, our heart revealed.

May it heal and bind up where we need that.

May it encourage us and challenge us to follow you faithfully, to love you and adore you, to serve those around us for your glory.

Pray for churches in Mount Vernon this morning.

As they gather, may they be faithful to your word.

May they hold high the word of God.

Not seeking to win people or convince people by their own words or what they can offer.

For what we have is what people need.

That is Christ and Him crucified.

So I pray that churches in this area would be faithful to you.

And may we be faithful.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

What we need and what we want are often, very often, two different things.

And part of growing up is it's this it's realizing that what I need and what I want are different things.

But then putting that into practice is actually pretty difficult.

One of the jobs of a leader is to point to what is needed, not necessarily what people want.

This is what a good parent does all the time, all day long, dozens of times.

They're correcting their children.

And the aim is that the child would grow up and learn that they shouldn't always pursue what they want, but they shouldn't pursue what they need.

They should be able to make good decisions, to lead lives that are flourishing and prosperous.

Because all around us we see people who have wants and needs, and they just chase after their wants.

Some people do this right out in the open.

Some people have a little bit more modesty and they conceal this.

But they're chasing after what they want.

When you read the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, or the story of Saul in 1 Samuel, or you read about the people of Israel throughout the Old Testament.

When you read these stories, the common theme is that people are pursuing what they want.

They're going after what they want over what they need.

We've been going through the Gospel of Luke, and we see Jesus, the Messiah, the Messiah, has come.

And he's beginning to teach to people.

And they're beginning to show them what they need.

And that they are wanting sinful things.

That their pride and their arrogance and their legalistic minds.

And what he's revealing to them is that what they're saying they want is a king to come and liberate them, free them.

But what they actually want is to do whatever their flesh desires.

They want to be left alone to make their laws and their rules.

They just want to be free from the Romans.

Now I know this morning as we look at chapter 5 and a part of chapter 6, what we're seeing is that this is a people in need.

A people who need a king to come.

People who need a king to rule.

A people who need someone to tell them what is right and what is wrong.

But see, the problem is they think they know what's right and wrong because they have the law.

As a matter of fact, what they need is help.

They need is a king who can liberate them from just being law keepers to being someone or people who obey God from a genuine heart.

So this morning we'll see that the people, there is a, they need a king who can heal.

They need a king who can transform.

They need a king who is worth following.

We are called to follow that king.

This passage is book-ended, if you will, with Jesus calling his disciples and commissioning his disciples.

He brings healing power to the people.

And he reveals to them why he is a king worth following.

Look with me in chapter 5 of Aleuk, beginning in verse 1.

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gesineret, and he saw two boats by the lake.

But the fishermen had gone out of them and were fishing or washing their nets.

Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, Jesus, that is, asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing.

But your word I will let but by your word, but at your word I will let down the nets.

And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.

They signaled to their partners and the other boats to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken.

And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men.

And when they had brought their boats to the land, they left everything and followed him.

Pause there.

And this is just the kind of backdrop where the rest of these scenes are going to take place.

Jesus, as we know from chapter 4, has been going and teaching.

And so he comes, and there's a the crowd's pressing in on him.

He gets into this boat and goes out in the water to kind of create some distance and people can see and listen.

And what happens is he teaches and then comes back in.

We don't know, they don't cover necessarily what he taught in this narrative right here, but then Jesus is talking to Simon Peter, and he's talking to the other fishermen and says, Listen, let out your nets.

I see that you're done, you're cleaning your nets.

Go back out there and do this.

And they realize all these fish they caught more than ever before.

And their response was fear.

Their response immediately wasn't gratitude or, hey, we're wealthy, or this is great, but fear.

It's interesting the response of Simon Peter because it's so different than many of the other people who witness these miracles.

Here, it's fear that comes into him, strikes him.

And Jesus says to him, Do not be afraid.

I'm going to change your life forever.

I'm going to change your career path.

You're now going to become fishers of men.

Jesus was going from place to place, teaching.

And everywhere he went, something miraculous happened to people.

And here Simon realizes his wickedness.

He realizes his sin.

And then he comes and he goes to the Lord and bows down.

And Jesus calls him.

What's so fascinating is what did they leave?

Everything.

These brothers just caught more fish, probably than any other time in their career.

Like this was the windfall.

This was what they had been dreaming of, catching all these fish.

And they just left them there, their boats, and followed Jesus.

They followed him.

And he begins to teach them and those others that he is a king who has authority.

Look in verse 12.

Follow here.

While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.

And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, Lord, if you will come, make me clean.

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will be clean.

And immediately the leprosy left him, and he charged him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded for a proof to them.

But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.

But he would withdraw to a desolate place and pray.

On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.

And the power of the Lord was with him to heal, and behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed.

And they were seeking to bring him and lay him before Jesus.

But finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let down his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.

And he saw their faith and said, Man, your sins are forgiven you.

And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, Who is this who speaks blasphemies?

Who can forgive God's Who can forgive sins but God alone?

When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, Why do you question in your hearts?

Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Rise and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, Rise, pick up your bed and go home.

And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been laying, what he had been laying on, and went home, glorifying God.

And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God, were filled with awe, saying, We have seen extraordinary things.

This is a king who has authority, who can come and make someone clean.

He can cleanse.

In Leviticus 14, in the old covenant, in the old testament, there is laws for those who have leprosy.

They're to be outside of the camp.

They are unclean people.

So this man, full of leprosy, as verse 12 says, comes to Jesus and asks him to clean him, to cleanse him.

Jesus has the authority to heal him.

Jesus, the clean one, the only truly clean one, touches the one who is unclean and makes him clean.

Jesus has the authority to cleanse the leper, to take our uncleanliness.

Things in our lives that look so normal to us, or we're so used to them, we don't think that they're repulsive, or even that it's a sickness, or that we are unwell, or blinded by our sin.

And yet Christ has the authority.

What the Pharisees, with all their teaching and the manipulation of the law, could not do.

Says to a paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven.

That he could walk again.

And Jesus is teaching.

Your primary issue isn't that you're paralyzed, and that your friends have to carry you about.

Your primary issue is that you're sinful.

And that you stand before a God with an account against you of guilty over your sin.

And you deserve punishment for that.

And so Jesus, in his compassion, first of all, doesn't just heal the guy.

What does he do?

He forgives his sins.

He forgives him.

He gives him what he ultimately needs to be forgiven.

And the teachers are right.

The scribes and the Pharisees are right to say, who can forgive sins but God alone?

And that's the very point.

This is a king who has authority to heal and to forgive.

Because he is God.

He wasn't waiting to become like God, he is God.

And then just to prove his point, he heals this brother.

Once he acknowledges that his primary issue is a soul-level sin issue, he deals with that, and then he heals him.

Because he is a king who has authority.

Look at verse 27.

After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth.

And he said to him, Follow me.

Leaving everything he rose and followed him.

And Levi made a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors, and others reclining at table with them.

And the Pharisees and the 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 for a physician, but those who are sick.

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

And they said to him, The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the do the disciples of the Pharisees.

But yours eat and drink.

And Jesus said to them, Can you make a wedding guest fast with the bridegroom while the bridegroom is with them?

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.

He also told them a parable.

If he does, he will tear the new garment, tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

If he does, the new wine will burst the wineskins, the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.

But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

And no one, after drinking old wine, desires new.

For he says, the old is good.

We see that the king has come to bring transformation.

And this story, this scene with Levi, he is a famous story, right?

Jesus comes and he calls Levi and he goes to his house, there's all these other tax collectors.

And the accusation among the scribes and the Pharisees is why is this Jesus, who's supposed to be this holy person, this teacher of the law, eating and drinking with tax collectors and with sinners.

Now, a tax collector, as you may know, is probably the most hated person in Israel at the time.

They would oftentimes be Jewish people who extorted money from their fellow Jews for or on behalf of the Roman government.

I wonder if Levi was there when the tax collectors were there earlier in Luke when Jesus told them to repent, to stop gathering more taxes than they were authorized to gather.

But Levi, so excited, begins to invite all of his friends.

And there's a beauty when we're converted, when the Lord saves us.

Then we just begin to invite people into our lives.

Hey, you need to go to church with me, and you gotta go to a small group with me, and you gotta, we gotta read the Bible together.

You start inviting people into your life because what has happened is the Messiah, the King of Kings, the ruler, the creator of all things, has said to you, follow me.

And there's no greater calling on your life than to follow Jesus.

Jesus brings transformation to Levi, and he tells the Pharisees and the scribes, I didn't come for those who are well or those who think they're well.

I came for those who are sick.

I came to call those who are in sin to repent.

And through that to change their nature, to change their desires, to give them a new heart, give them new dreams, new passions.

So Levi just invites all of his friends, throws all of this party, and who knows how wealthy Levi was.

Tax collectors tend to be very wealthy because they were stealing everyone else's money, right?

And who knows?

He could just be blowing the works on this party, inviting everyone to come that they might meet Jesus.

JC Ryle has this quote the highest form of selfishness is that of a man who is content with.

To go to heaven alone.

The highest form of selfishness is that of the man who is content to go to heaven alone.

To be content to not share your faith.

To be there in glory without anyone that you've invited or that you share the gospel with.

Jesus is trying to teach them something.

That what he is doing is something new.

Yes, it's a continuation, in a sense, of the old covenant, but it is something new.

That he is not like the kings of old.

He is not like the kings who faltered and failed.

He's a king who will be steadfast, immovable, who will redeem his people, who will atone for their sins, and who can transform them.

The calling is no longer just come follow me as we keep the law.

Come follow me in obeying and waiting for the Messiah, but rather I am the Messiah.

I am the one who fulfills the law perfectly, who brings transformation.

So come follow me.

Jesus is bringing in the new covenant.

And Jesus reveals that he is a king worth following.

Look at verse 1 of chapter 6.

On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.

But some of the Pharisees said, Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?

And Jesus answered them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry?

He and those who are with him, how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the f of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him.

And he said to them, The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

On another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered.

And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him.

But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, Come and stand here.

And he rose and stood there.

And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm?

To save life or to destroy it?

And after looking around at them, all he said to them, Stretch out your hand.

And he did so, and his hand was restored.

But they were filled with fury and disgust with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Jesus reveals the heart.

He reveals to the heart.

The Pharisees and the scribes, the teachers, they're just looking constantly.

Are you breaking the law?

Are you breaking the law?

Are you breaking the law?

They've made up their own religion, the Jews have at this point.

They've added so much to the old covenant.

It is its own religion.

And they're looking.

Are you keeping our religion?

Are you keeping our religion?

That's all they care about.

Jesus reveals to them that he is the Lord of the Sabbath.

That he is over these things.

That they were worshiping the wrong thing.

They were worshiping the law.

That was their highest priority.

Not honoring God, not loving him, but following the law.

They took what's given in 1 Samuel chapter 21 and they twisted it and they added to it.

1 Samuel 21 · chapter mention

So that just people taking grain and rubbing it in their hands, that's labor.

You're working.

You're a lawbreaker.

Jesus rebukes them.

He doesn't appeal and say, listen, well, you've twisted 1 Samuel 21.

That's not what it says.

Or, you know, we're just like rubbing in our hands.

It's not that big of a deal.

He doesn't even begin to argue with them about the technicalities of the law.

What he says to them is, I'm over the law.

That I am the Son of God.

That the law is below me.

And yet he will keep every part of the law.

They're just looking to catch him, to catch him.

One commentator says it's a bad symptom of any man's state of soul when he begins to put the second things in religion in the first place, and the first things in the second.

Or the things ordained by man above the things ordained by God.

And how easy it is for us to do this.

How easy it is for us to take the law or God's word and we misapply it.

And because I think the most important thing in your life is that you do this.

Now I think if you don't do that, you're not following God's ways.

How often we do this to justify our own sin.

We do this to justify our own sin.

We'll take parts of what we're commanded to do, and we'll do those faithfully.

And then we'll neglect things that we're supposed to do.

And we'll look to the things that we are doing and say, Well, I'm doing these things.

I'm going to church, I'm reading my Bible regularly-ish.

I do pray and I do care about the things of God.

And you can pacify your heart as you indulge in sin over here.

Secret lust, pride, ego.

You're just chasing after money or you're chasing after satisfaction.

And you keep those things at bay because you're looking to something else.

You're saying, well, I'm obeying these things.

Instead of saying, Do you have a heart that wants to worship God?

Do you have a heart that seeks to worship God?

To obey Him, to love Him, to submit to Him.

We need to be really honest with ourselves.

When we are taken into sin or we're deceived by our own pride, that what we need are hearts that long to worship God and quick to confess all the areas in our life where we don't do that.

That we know that we're not perfect.

And this side of glory of the Lord coming, we're not going to be perfect.

But that doesn't mean that we don't confess our sin.

That doesn't mean that we don't acknowledge what's in our heart, the rebellion that's there.

And so often we kind of want to make rules and laws for ourselves.

It's kind of our standard.

And if we're if we're following that, then we're good.

And that's what the scribes did, and that's what the Pharisees did.

They just made their religion a giant long checklist.

They just checked off thousands of things they had to do all the time.

Check it off, check it off, check it off.

I'm good.

And Jesus comes to reveal to them that's not why you're created.

That's not why you're here to just check off boxes.

That's empty.

You think the Sabbath is just so, so important.

But I'm the Son of God.

I've come that you might be saved.

But you don't care about that.

You care about following your own law.

And how often do we miss the things of God?

Because we're just checking off the boxes.

Going to church, I'm not indulging in those sins, I'm being faithful to my wife, my spouse.

And you're just missing out because God's called you to worship him.

And he's revealing in this passage that he is a king worth following.

He's not like the scribes and the Pharisees.

They're always looking to catch you in your sin.

He's come and said, You are sinful, and I've come to free you from that.

He is a king worth following.

Christians throughout the centuries have been marked, have been known to follow faithfully Jesus.

And when some of them get off and they start making these weird rules and laws, and they start making those things more important.

It's the church's job to come and say, no, you're not doing that.

You're missing it.

This is what happened in Galatians.

The book of Galatians is all about this.

Christians who misunderstood the law and think, well, Jesus died for us, but we also have to do this.

We have to behave this way, we need to be circumcised.

And Paul writes to the church then, says, No, it's by grace alone are you saved.

He says, Christians, we're always calling one another back to this, to follow the faithful King and Him alone.

Jesus in these stories is marked by compassion.

His compassion on the man with the withered hand.

His compassion on the tax collector.

His compassion on the sinner.

His compassion on the man with leprosy.

Who probably for years has not been around or touched any other human being.

To these people who other people did not want to go to.

The scribes, the Pharisees, the teacher, they didn't want anything to do with these people.

They were outcasts, they were unwelcome.

Jesus comes to them.

He's compassionate.

He doesn't kind of tuck his doctrine and set all those things aside to show them love.

The truth of the gospel, the message of the Bible is love.

Telling people what the truth is is love, and he's compassionate.

He goes to them.

So he reveals again and again that he is a king with authority, that he is a king that brings transformation.

And he is a king who is worth following.

This scene at the end in verse 12, Jesus calls the apostles out of those who were his disciples.

Again, this pattern of prayer.

And that all night he continued in prayer to God.

And when day came, he called his disciples, and chose from the twelve, whom he named apostles, Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alpheus, and Simon, who was called the zealot, and Judas, the son, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples, and a great multitude of people from Judea and Jerusalem, the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.

And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.

And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.

Jesus begins getting into a boat to teach the people.

And he reveals to them who he is, who this King Jesus is.

That the people, as we see, there's multitudes of people, crowds and crowds, great multitudes, thousands and thousands coming to hear him.

That they might be healed by him.

That they might be healed from the sicknesses all around them and in their flesh.

They want this king to come and heal.

The reality is that in just a few months or years, as Jesus does his ministry, the crowds, they come and they go.

They want food, they come, they want healing, they come, and then they go.

Now, this what is often called Palm Sunday.

This is the Sunday before the crucifixion.

This Sunday, today, as we remember Palm Sunday.

And this is called the triumphal entry, when Jesus comes into Jerusalem to partake of the Passover and to prepare for the crucifixion.

No one else knows that, but he comes.

When he enters into Jerusalem, the crowds are there.

They're not only there, they're laying down palm branches and they're laying down their jackets and their coats that he might walk on this, this donkey might walk, carrying Jesus into the city.

And they're saying, Hosanna, Hosanna.

They're calling out his glory and his honor.

They're treating him like a king.

They're honoring him like a king.

And then in a few short days, everyone scatters.

Everyone forsakes.

Everyone leaves.

And again, you see the pattern.

It's the same pattern that Israel has been having for centuries.

They forsake God.

They forget him.

They go their own way.

They want a king.

They want deliverance.

They want these things.

But only at a certain cost.

And then they scatter.

They don't want this king anymore.

They don't want a king that tells them to come and die that they might find life.

They don't want a king who says to them, Love your enemies and love those who persecute you and do you wrong.

They don't want that kind of king.

Sure they want a king who can heal?

Who doesn't?

Sure they want a king who can drive out demons?

Of course.

Who doesn't?

But they don't want a king who calls them to come and die.

But that's exactly what Jesus does.

And as a faithful king, he goes first.

He goes first.

He models and displays.

He goes first.

When everyone would forsake him, when everyone left him, he went, loved his enemies, laid down his life, because he is God.

He was redeeming his people, showing him that he is, and Jesus is the true and right eternal king.

Then he comes, calls his people to follow him, makes them like him, putting new hearts.

As the old covenant says, where hearts of stone were there, then he puts hearts of flesh.

Those who were enemies of God, he came to justify them, that they might be made right with him, that they would follow this King.

King Jesus has come to heal, to transform, to display his worthiness and to go first.

That he would sacrifice himself so that we, you and I, in our sin could follow him faithfully and enjoy him.

Gloriously enjoy our King forever.

So let us forsake sin.

Let's forsake apathy.

Being ashamed of the things of God to those around us.

Being prideful.

Thinking, well, I know I'm sinful, but at least I'm not that sinful.

I know I need a Savior, but at least I don't need one quite as bad as that guy does.

For Jesus has come to call the sick and the unrighteous.

And that is us.

That is us.

That's you.

That's me.

And Christ has come, the faithful King.

So let us follow our King.

Follow him faithfully.

Church, let's pray.