Salvation for the Sinner

And our scripture reading comes from Mark 2, 13 to 22, and we'll be reading from the Christian Standard Bible.

So it's Mark 2, 13 to 22.

Jesus went out again beside the sea.

The whole crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.

Then, passing by, he saw Levi, the son of Elpheus, sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, Follow me.

And he got up and followed him.

While he was reclining at the table in Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating.

And Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who were following him.

When the scribes, who were Pharisees, saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

When Jesus heard this, he told them, It's not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick.

Now, John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.

People came and asked him, Why do John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples fast?

But your disciples do not fast.

Jesus said to them, The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they?

As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast.

But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

No one sows a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.

Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins.

No new wine is put into fresh wineskins.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Thank you, Cecilia, and good morning, everyone.

Want to also say good morning and welcome to those who are visiting with us this morning.

We're glad that you are here.

Um, it has been a very encouraging morning already, even just hearing the youth and how the Lord used them on their mission strip.

And may I echo again what Pastor Bob has said.

Thank you for being a generous church and that supports and disciples these young people in this way and gives them an opportunity to see the needs of the world and the culture around us, but also an opportunity to step out in faith and to minister to others.

So we're so thankful for a successful trip there.

We are in Mark 2 this morning, so I invite you to turn your Bibles to Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

We're going to be looking at, as uh Cecilia just read for us, verses 13 to 22, salvation for the sinner.

Salvation for the sinner.

Now, before we do, I'm just going to uh pray that the Lord would bless our time together this morning in his word.

Father, we all are coming here this morning with different burdens, different cares, different challenges, different joys.

Lord, I pray you would help us to behold and see the grace of Jesus here this morning.

That our hearts would be encouraged, that we would be stirred further in our affection and love for you.

And that God ultimately you would be glorified.

So, Lord, as we hear you speak this morning through your word, we ask, humbly ask, that the Holy Spirit would do its work in our heart and life.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, already in our time in Mark's gospel, we've seen Christ presented as the Messiah, we've seen him presented as the Son of God, as the Son of Man.

And through this, we've seen not just his titles and not just the offices, we've seen him presented even as priest, but we've also seen his heart, his compassion, his true character in all of these things.

We've seen his compassion in particular in how he heals, his power in how he orders the demons around and resists the devil.

We've seen his servanthood.

We've seen his prayerful attitude, his focused mission on preaching the gospel.

And today, in a new way, we're going to see the heart that Jesus has for the sinner.

And as some of us can certainly relate to being a sinner, in fact, all of us can, in a very real way, I want us to, and I know some of us have been Christians for a long time.

Some of us, we've been Christians just maybe for a few years, maybe a few months, but some here, you've been a believer for a long time.

And I and I hope and I pray that this morning, as we encounter this heart of Jesus for the sinner, even you would be greatly encouraged as we remember the greatness of the grace of God in your own life.

You know, in seeing these things, there are several theological truths that come out of these stories in the story today that are important for us to consider and to understand, especially as the ministry and the teaching of Jesus progresses in the coming weeks.

Next week, we're gonna talk about how he is the Lord of the Sabbath.

And so this week, there's some groundwork that's laid that even helps us with that.

So this morning, what we're gonna look at is we're gonna consider how there is no sin or sinner out of the reach of Jesus' grace.

There is no sin or sinner out of the healing touch of the Savior.

We're also gonna see how all sinners need to come to Jesus to receive his grace.

And then we're gonna conclude looking at with Jesus, the old has passed away, behold, all has become new.

But the first thing we see is that there is no sin or sinner out of the reach of Jesus' grace.

And we see this in verses 13 to 14.

You just think about that statement for a second.

There's no sin or sinner out of the reach of Jesus' grace.

Do you truly believe this?

Do you truly believe this?

When you think about the struggles of others, do you truly believe this?

2 Peter 3.9 reminds us the Lord is not slack concerning his promise of some kind of slackness, but he is long-suffering towards us all, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance?

Do you truly believe that that's the heart of God for others?

Maybe to put it another way for self-reflection, when we think about ourselves and our own sin and our own struggles, do you truly believe that Jesus has forgiven you?

That you've been washed and covered in the blood of Jesus Christ, that you are not far from his reach.

And I know this is serious and deep right off the bat, but grace and the grace of God is difficult sometimes.

It's difficult for us to grasp, and it's difficult for us to show others, and what Jesus is about to do, I think, is really going to encourage us, really going to help us as he steps into our mess and he gives us hope.

And how does he do this?

Starting in verse 13.

Well, verse 13, Jesus went out again beside the sea.

The whole crowd was coming to him.

And what was he doing?

Why had he come?

Well, he was out teaching them, he was preaching the good news of God.

And then passing by verse 14, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office.

And he said to him, Follow me.

And he got up, being Levi, got up and followed him.

Here, Jesus is teaching and preaching the good news, and he's walking about with his crowd, with this crowd that's following him as he's teaching, and he sees Levi there.

Levi's just hanging out in the tax office.

Now, most scholars and church history would confirm that who we're introduced here to is Matthew.

Levi is Matthew, Matthew is Levi.

And as many of us know, if you have dug into this before, you've heard these teachings before, you understand the tax collectors were some of the most hated people in all of Israel.

The very nature of a tax collector, and if you were a tax collector, you would be seen as this, but the very nature of a tax collector was an oppressor of others.

They exploited people.

Tax collectors were considered traitors, extortioners.

And they would take the tax that was required and they would add to it in order to pay off their own debts and to pay for their own lifestyle.

And this was a common thing among tax collectors.

Like the scammers of today.

They weren't even allowed being witnesses or judges in their court system, so they wouldn't have been getting any letter for jury duty because they weren't trustworthy.

Some of us wish we weren't getting those letters either.

But they weren't trustworthy.

The synagogue didn't even want them.

They couldn't even go and worship like other Israelites, like other Jewish people.

And although we don't have a lot of detail about Levi's own practices or Matthew's own practices and his own work as a tax collector, we have every reason to believe that he was such a man.

And Jesus sees him sitting there, calls him out and says, follow me.

And this is the second time, right, that we see in Mark's gospel, Jesus addresses disciples directly.

He did this earlier with the four fishermen, dresses them directly and calls them to follow him.

But this is the first time we see a tax collector.

And in both instances, what's interesting is we don't see any more of these instances in Mark's gospel.

So it's almost as if Mark is just kind of, you know, this is how Jesus went about gathering his disciples.

And so we kind of assume the rest of them were gathered in a similar fashion.

But we see this tax collector, and in both instances with the fishermen, with the tax collectors, the response was the same.

Jesus says, follow me, and then they immediately completely abandon their former way of life.

They get up and they follow him.

And if you just think about it for a moment, what Jesus is doing here is significantly risky.

I mean, not only would this drive the religious leaders of the day crazy, and we know it does, and we're going to interact with that a little bit here in the passage, but it was also a risk because uh it was in risk giving offense to even the common people.

So you think being a common person there and you see Jesus call out to this tax collector, the guy that's been oppressing you, the guy that's been scamming you, taking from you, Jesus says, follow me.

I mean, even with Jesus making this call to Levi, the tax collector, it could have caused others to reject his own teaching.

How could we follow that guy?

How can we follow a guy that loves, accepts, forgives, and trusts a man who hurt or exploited others?

Because Levi's position in society represented in a big way this legal oppression of the people.

What was Jesus doing here?

I mean, why would he do that?

Why would he risk so much?

Listen, it's because this is who Jesus is.

This is how the gospel operates.

It's for the abused as it is for the abuser.

It's for the oppressed as it is for the oppressor.

And what happens is Levi immediately gets up and he follows him.

Man, what a scene! You know, there is no sin.

There is no sinner out of the reach of God's grace.

The grace of God wants to transform and redirect every single one of us.

Whether whatever it is that you've done, whatever it is that you've seen, whatever it is that you have experienced, however hurt you are, however weak you are, the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus is extended to you.

The question becomes, will you follow?

Will you respond?

And this leads us right into our next point.

As we see in verses 15 to 17, that all sinners need to come to receive Jesus' grace.

All sinners need to come to receive Jesus' grace.

What takes place here in verses 15 to 17 is this contrast between those who come to dine with Jesus and those who look on from afar with judgment.

Now, church, this is for us here this morning.

We can be those who come and dine with Jesus or those who look from afar with judgment.

And verse 15, it picks up, goes right from follow me, and he gets up and he follows Jesus.

Verse 15, while he was reclining, this is Jesus, at the table in Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who were following him.

Scholars agree that despite some of the arguments that are out there within the scholarly world, anyways, that this is in fact in Matthew's Matthew's house, because there is some arguments against, even though it's pretty clear here in the verse.

But what we see here is more important than where the house is and whose house it was.

What we see here is many tax collectors and sinners, as the text puts it, many who were following Jesus.

So we've got to picture this.

This is a lot of people, Mark is saying.

A bunch of people.

Tax collectors, sinners, those following Jesus.

Perhaps Levi gathered other business associates or friends of his.

I bet you his friend pool was pretty small.

He wanted to introduce them, though, to Jesus.

But we see many are there, many tax collectors, many sinners.

What Mark uses here in the text is interesting.

He says that they were reclining at the table in Levi's house.

This is luxurious terminology, okay?

This wasn't something that was uh typical within the Jewish culture.

Typically, in the Jewish culture, they would sit at the table.

But here Mark says they're reclining.

This is more of a Roman kind of thing.

This is something that the Romans did.

It was more of a practice done for a special formal feast of celebrations where guests would be a part of.

But Mark makes it his point to say they were reclining.

And he wants us to get the significance.

This was a special thing that was happening here.

This is a special feast.

However, as we'll see, Mark's terminology continues to help us in making this point.

Because as Jesus is at this table reclining, in a lot of ways, it points us to Old Testament themes of God enjoying covenant meals with Israel and the nations, particularly in Isaiah 25, verses 6 to 8.

Isaiah 25:6–8

And here is the point in all this.

Our Redeemer eats with sinners, and he welcomes us to the table.

Jesus entering Levi's house wouldn't have necessarily put his beliefs in question, but it certainly would have put his moral standing in question.

Because sharing a meal with someone was the same as identification with that person, stepping into that person's world, interacting with that person, being connected to that person.

But Jesus, as we know, Jesus had come to identify himself with us, with sinners, to take our sin on himself, to bring full, satisfying justice, as the wrath of God is poured out on him on the cross, and here he eats with the tax collectors and sinners.

And they come to eat with Jesus.

And look what happens in verse 16.

When the scribes who were Pharisees, so this is the first time we see Pharisees mentioned in Mark's Gospel.

When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked themselves, why does he eat with sinners and tax collectors?

See, scribes were the interpreters of the law.

We've already been introduced to the scribes.

They knew the law really good.

They knew the commentaries of the law really good.

They knew the teachings of the law really, really well.

Pharisees were the guardians of obedience to the law.

And in fact, Jesus was theologically closer to the Pharisees than he was the Sadducees.

You see, theologically, the Pharisees believed that there was going to be a resurrection.

They believed in angels and demons and spiritual powers, but they also believed in the authority of Scripture and the authority of Of the Bible, as Jesus believed those things as well.

And so here the Pharisees are looking on the situation and judging it.

The scribes are looking on the situation and they're judging it.

And often when we think of sinners, and because they mention, you know, how could this Jesus be eating with sinners?

Sometimes when we think of sinners, we think of tax collectors, we think of prostitutes, we think of those lacking others, maybe lacking moral character that Jesus was around.

But to the Pharisees, it was much broader than that.

You see, sinners were anyone who didn't follow their interpretation of Scripture.

So you weren't part of their theological camp, you were a sinner.

And so they're watching this happen and they're really questioning Jesus' choice of company.

Because, like we understand, Jesus being with these people, he's identifying himself with these people.

And here is how Jesus responds in verse 17.

When Jesus heard this, so he's not reading their minds like he was last week, but when he heard this, what does it say?

He told them, he turns to them, he tells them, it is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick.

And I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners.

And we understand that a person needs to see, needs to admit, and realize their own sinfulness first in order to receive God's grace.

And the irony in this whole situation is this these scribes who were Pharisees needed to be eating at that same meal.

But instead, they were looking at things with judgment.

And in this whole Jesus only gives, he not only gives us permission in the way that he does this, but he not only gives us permission and being with sinners, but he also declares that this is exactly why he had come.

It's a very famous verse, very famous interaction and passage.

I mean, only an effective doctor or healer must get their hands dirty with their patients.

It's not very helpful to write a letter to your doctor, ask him what's wrong with you, him to respond back with a letter.

You need to be in the same room.

You need to see and understand what's happening.

Sometimes you need to smell and taste what's happening.

And see, Jesus is making this connection.

I am the effective doctor and the effective healer, and I have come to save and to seek those who will come to me humbly.

You know, there is no person free of sin.

There is no sinner out of the reach of God's grace.

And today's stories are meant to challenge really the struggle and the hatred of these scribes, these Pharisees towards these sinners, towards these people.

You know, we understand and we know that the gospel is offensive to the unbeliever.

But you know, the gospel can also be offensive to others who struggle with grace.

Because even grace can be difficult, as I mentioned.

Grace can be offensive.

It's hard in one way with grace.

You know, it's hard to see the person that we could not stand or the person that we despised all of a sudden become a brother or sister in Christ.

Grace is also difficult because it's costly.

Forgiveness is uncomfortable.

It requires payment.

It's painful.

I mean, take a look at the cross.

Payment made, painful payment for the cost of grace, for the cost of forgiveness.

Justice perfectly served on the cross.

But perfectly served only through the blood of Jesus Christ, the innocent God man, being spilled.

And so it is in forgiveness.

And this is a challenge to even us here this morning.

How is our heart of forgiveness towards others?

Are we running to forgiveness?

Or are we running to bitterness?

And we're gonna get more into this as the gospel of Mark unfolds, more of this interaction with forgiveness.

But here it's it's it's starting to get really personal.

And this is where we see that there is a fundamental difference between Jesus' agenda and the agenda of the scribes and the Pharisees.

And my prayer is that there would be no fundamental difference between Jesus' agenda and the agenda of our church.

But we would get on board with what he is doing.

We would stay on board with what he is doing.

And even on the relational level, forgiving as we've been forgiven, loving as we've been loved.

In this story, as with the last, there's a focus on sin and there's a focus on forgiveness.

And what Jesus is showing us is that things are now radically different than what they had expected.

That under the kingdom of God, there's a new method, there's a new situation, there's a new reality.

Forgiveness was now available to all who come to the Son, but you need to come to the Son to receive his grace.

And this point is driven even further home in the following verses in verses 18 to 22, as we're going to close in looking at with Jesus, the old has passed away and the new has come.

The old has passed away and the new has come.

You know, new things and experiences sometimes can be a little scary.

They're a little unpredictable.

But new can also be exciting, full of joy.

And there seems to be another abrupt uh change of scene that takes place here in the text.

And Jesus, Jesus, I think Mark, in doing this, he's helping to drive home this point.

The old has passed away and the new has come.

Something that has started with his earlier interaction that we just looked at.

And so here in verse 18, look, look, look what happens.

Now, John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.

People came and asked him, asked Jesus, why did John's disciples and Pharisees and the Pharisees' disciples fast?

But your disciples do not fast.

Jewish tradition required that at least one fast a year for the Day of Atonement.

But often what would happen is more than this would take place, especially within the guidance of the Pharisees.

With the stricter Jews, fasting was practiced much more frequently.

The Pharisees would practice it at least twice a week.

And even more.

And if this was the case, then for John's disciples and the Pharisees to be fasting, and Jesus' disciples not fasting, that would have looked very odd, right?

Would have looked pretty strange.

Because here's the most spiritual among us.

And the most spiritual among them of the day, they would be fasting.

And they look at Jesus and they're like, you claim to be the Son of God doing these spiritual things.

Why aren't you and why aren't your disciples fasting?

And this would have been hard for them to accept or understand.

Because remember what we had talked about, the Pharisees earlier.

If somebody wasn't fasting or following the Pharisees' order of law, that would be the hallmark of a sinner, according to the Pharisees.

And what Jesus does here is he doesn't condemn fasting.

What Jesus is doing here is he's introducing this new way of life, a new way of following as living in the kingdom of God was going to be different than under the old law system.

The old religious order could not hold or contain this new kingdom living.

It's more extraordinary than expected, this new kingdom living.

It will reach people in places unimaginable, and the gates of Hades will not prevail in this new kingdom living.

In verse 19, Jesus responds and he says to them, The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they?

As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast.

And what he's doing here is he's relating his relationship with those who follow him to that of a wedding feast.

And that only those invited to the feast could partake of the wedding feast.

It would be strange that if you're at a wedding feast, the guests would refuse to be eating at a wedding feast.

I mean, these weddings, as we know, would go on for days.

And so you get a little hungry.

But you see, Jesus is making that exact point.

This it wouldn't make any sense for a wedding guest to fast while in the middle of a wedding.

He's trying to help us understand.

That being a child of God, being a child of Christ, a follower of Jesus is a new kind of relationship, a relationship with joy and celebration, an exhilarating new situation.

And Jesus, what he's doing in this is he's hinting at this greater messianic banquet and final marriage supper of the Lamb between the church and between Christ.

And if you're a believer, you're gonna be there.

You're an invited guest.

And I invite you now to turn with me to Revelation chapter 19, 6 through 10.

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

As this paints, this picture of this wedding feast that we have to look forward to as the church.

Revelation 19, starting in verse 6.

Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude.

This is John the apostle explaining these things, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying, Hallelujah, because our Lord God the Almighty reigns.

Verse 7, let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has prepared herself.

That's us, the church.

She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure.

For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.

And verse 9, then he said to me, Write this Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb.

He also said to me, These words of God are true.

Then I fell at his feet to worship him.

But he said to me, Don't do that.

I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters who hold firmly to the testimony of Jesus, worship God because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, the marriage supper of the Lamb, our future joy, being with Christ for all of eternity.

And that's even the focus here back in Mark 2.

The focus is on Jesus being the source of joy at this wedding, not the wedding feast itself.

And we get this emphasize as we go into verse 20 and we see the somber reality of what is to take place.

When Jesus says, But the time will come in verse 20, Mark 2, the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them and they will fast on that day.

And this is Christ's first admission here in the Gospel of Mark that explicitly predicts his departure.

And what he does in the following verses is he further illustrates this shift from the old way of thinking to the new in verses 21 to 22.

Because he continues and he goes on no one sows a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, otherwise the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and the worse tear is made, and a worse tear is made.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins.

No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.

And this is kind of interesting.

It's interesting illustrations that he also jumps into using here.

But the idea is the same: that the old garment and the old wineskins are illustrating the same thing.

The old system of the law will not hold up to what's coming.

The new law, or sorry, the law had been fulfilled, Hebrews 8.13, and a new covenant would be established, Luke 22.

And this will be important, especially as we make the shift to talking about the Sabbath next week, because Jesus has come to make all things new.

And this includes the law, yes.

But it also includes you and me.

If you're sitting here this morning and you're not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to know Jesus wants to pour his grace and his forgiveness into your life.

He wants to make you new.

Would you let him?

Believer that is here this morning, young, old believer.

You've been following Jesus for a short amount of time or a long amount of time.

Are you weary?

Are you heavy laden?

Come to the Savior to give you rest.

Come to him for nourishment, for strength, for joy.

Let him fight for you.

Let him build you up with his grace.

Your past is no more.

You've been set free.

Your guilt is no more.

The Savior has declared you clean.

Second Corinthians 5, 12.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old is passed away and see the new has come.

And what Jesus is doing here is he's illustrating this.

You can't put new wine into old wineskins.

Old wineskins are ratty.

The new wine as it ferments is going to burst open and break those old wineskins.

And he's illustrating that as he has come, he has come to make you and I a new creation.

And just a moment, we're going to sing these words.

All to Jesus I surrender.

Lord, I give myself to thee.

Fill me with thy love and power.

Let thy blessing fall on me.

All to Jesus I surrender.

Now I feel the sacred flame.

Oh the joy of full salvation.

Glory, glory to his name.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for that invitation that you have given us to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

We thank you that as the church you look at us and you see righteousness, you see your holiness.

I pray, Lord, that we would come to you with our burdens, with our cares, and that at your feet we would find rest and strength.

Lord, I think of those who might be here listening this morning that don't know you as their Savior.

Lord, I pray that you would impress this deeply into their hearts and they would, as Levi does, get up and follow you.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.