We turn to the Word of God, to 1 Corinthians in your Old Testament, 2 Corinthians, 2 Chronicles in your Old Testament, and then Luke chapter 5 in the New Testament. Let's stand together for the reading of God's Holy Word. First, from 2 Chronicles, this is a section of Solomon's prayer. where he is asking the Lord for blessing on those who wander and sin against him. And that blessing is here particularly for the one who has experienced captivity and then turns back to the Lord in mercy and for grace. We turn here in 2 Chronicles 6 and verse 36 to pick up that theme of cries for mercy and forgiveness for the wandering sinner. When they sin against you, for there is no one who does not sin, and you become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy and take them captive to a land far or near, yet when they come to themselves in a land where they were carried captive and repent and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness, And when they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive and prayed toward their land, which you gave to their fathers in the city, which you have chosen toward the temple, which I have built for your name and hear from heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you. Here we read of the call of one such sinner, the saving, forgiving mercy of Jesus Christ. Luke chapter 5 and verse 27, 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, and there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with him. And the scribes and the Pharisees complained against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered and said to 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. The grass withers, the flower fades, the Word of God endures forever. Give now your attention to the preaching of the Word of God today from Luke chapter 5. The call of Levi, also known as Matthew, won wondrously one of those called to be in the inner circle of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be one of the twelve apostles. The call of the Gospel is an urgent call. What Jesus came to proclaim and the call that echoes from Him into the world is an urgent call. It has to do with life and death and time and eternity. It's not about small things. It's about the greatest things that you could ever contemplate in your heart and mind. It is a call which is about your destiny, your eternal destiny. And this reality about the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes in our hearts, even if we've followed Jesus for many years, we've believed in Him, we've trusted Him, the urgency and the dimensions and the significance of the Gospel and what it means, and what we have committed to in following Christ, and more than that and higher, what Christ has declared and done for us, sometimes we can be in danger, as John, by the Spirit, wrote to the church in Revelation, of losing our first love. And the urgency and dimensions of glory and power of this Gospel message can lessen in our hearts. And maybe you're here this morning, you never believed, So you've never understood its power and glory, and it is my prayer and our prayer as a church this morning that you would come to know. It's urgent. It's illustrated in what's at stake, eternal destiny. It's powerful, the gospel itself. It's a call. It's the call of God Himself in history to sinners. It's a call to flee from the wrath to come to use the language of John the Baptist and to find refuge in Jesus Christ and eternal life in Him. In the Scriptures, one of the ways this urgency and power is illustrated is in how people respond to that call. And here, we have a man who when Jesus with divine saving authority says two words, follow me, He leaves behind everything, his sins, his livelihood, and he follows Jesus Christ. This is taught to us in a lot of places in Scripture, in our own text here. Earlier, the call of the gospel has profound implications. In Luke chapter 5, for the paralytic, your sins are forgiven you. John chapter 4, for the woman at the well, In Acts chapter 2, when the gospel is preached, the people at Pentecost were cut to the heart And they asked, what must we do to be saved? There was an urgency. And the apostle Peter said, repent of me, baptize every one of you for the remission of your sins. And there was repentance and baptism, and there was an engagement and a response to the message in Acts 8. The Ethiopian eunuch under Philip's ministry believes the gospel in Acts 9. Paul, when he's arrested by Jesus Christ, believes the gospel. And in every case, there is this moment Glory and power when Jesus Christ in his saving mercy is presented and sinners hold fast and cling to him. And from that moment on, everything changes. Nothing's the same. Philippian Jailer, he's ready to die. What must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you and your household, and you will be saved. Powerful call. He believes and he received salvation. The pattern here is with Levi. The pattern is in our text. Let me also remind you before we get to the text of another pattern. There's another group of people in the Bible who hear the same message and don't do anything. The Pharisees in the text here. There are those who hear this call and stumble over it. The rich young ruler who had many possessions who he couldn't let go of them and he went away sorrowful. King Agrippa, almost you persuaded me to be a Christian. Who listen, but fail to believe and commit. Maybe you know some people in both categories. Again, I don't know what category you're in this morning. But the urgency and glory and power of that call is illustrated when Jesus calls Levi. The text sets before us in Luke chapter 5, first, an idea that is necessary to understand what's happening and the glory of this particular call. We've already had a narrative of earlier call of the disciples who were fishermen. And Jesus had come to them and said, follow me, I will make you fishers of men. Why do we have a narrative of a second call separately, this man named Levi, and what does that teach us about the nature of the gospel call and about our Savior, Jesus Christ? That's what we're going to ask. And one of the great distinguishing features of this narrative compared to the other narratives of calling is a little word, and the word is tax, or tax collector, related word, or tax office. And you might think, what does that have to do with this being a distinct narrative? Well, if you look at the text again, verse 27, 28, and 30, tax collector, tax office, a great number of tax collectors were at Levi's party. And then the Pharisees said, why would you eat with tax collectors and sinners? Why does this line run through the text? It's clearly there's something significant about this particular kind of person and salvation. This is the argument, really, in the text. This is the strange thing about this narrative. There's a tax collector who's following Jesus. Why would that be significant? Probably helpful for us to understand a little of the idea of taxation and what's happening in the New Testament. You know how governments operate. They take a portion of your money and they use that to operate the things of government. And no one loves being taxed. I think in history, it's always been a source of tension. As a matter of fact, the founding of our country, taxation was a source of tension and there's reasons for that. Some taxation is necessary for, let's say, national defense, or to keep a court system going, or things like that. You build roads. There's things about taxation that are for the common good, and it's good and right, and we should participate in that. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us again and again that we are to pay our taxes. Jesus said, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Paul says in Romans 13 that we are to honor those who rule over us, including the civil magistrate, the Lord's servant, the Lord's minister, and we are to pay taxes to whom taxes are due. However, in history, taxation has often been something where people have seen an opportunity to get more money for themselves. Corruption. And sometimes the tax departments have to market taxation in such a way to soften the blow. I think about what we just went through, tax return season. The marketing department's pretty skilled, the IRS. They want you to be happy in April that you are getting something back. Actually, it's the end of when you were supposed to pay and tally up. A lot of people are happy they're getting something back. It's kind of an interesting system that we've made. But there's something in this idea of taxation in history, though it's good and right, and Christians ought to pay them and honor the king, there's something in it which often can go wrong in a country. As countries disintegrate, corruption sets in. It becomes harder for us to think about paying taxes. Or how about this, how about the use of tax money? Used for evil things, let's say. Very, very thankful that our Lord tells us that we are to pay these and that the uses and ends, even if it's used wrongly, is not the responsibility of the believer. Rather, that's the responsibility of the magistrate. The responsibility is to honor, honorably, honor those who rule over us and pay our taxes. That's what our Savior clearly taught. But because it was often unjust, And often filled with corruption, especially in Jesus' day, the idea of a tax collector was a symbol of sinfulness and to be an outcast from Israel. Again. The situation at the opening of the New Testament wasn't just taxation generally, but it would be similar to this if you had to file a tax return or pay taxes to the U.S. government and also a foreign occupying power. Let's say you had a second tax return that said China on it. If you were growing up in the New Testament period, it would say Rome. And now let's ask a question. That would be hard enough in a natural sense. For Israel, it was excruciatingly difficult because Rome represented an overlord that had usurped, in their view, the promises of God to Abraham, to your descendants, I will give this land. And to be a tax collector was more than just to participate in general corruption. That was a very corrupt enterprise in Jesus' day, filled with enforcers and thugs and grab. You think of Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19. It was also this spiritual conundrum for Israel for how Do we pay taxes to this overlord Rome that is unjustly, as it were, occupying our land? So if you were a tax collector, every one of these unpleasant associations were fixed to you. And let's say a little bit more about how you could become a tax collector. If you were Herod Antipas, as Levi was probably working for, the kings would actually sell tax collecting franchises. And they would allow the tax collectors to levy a higher tax than would be paid to the ruler so that they could fill their own pockets faster. And if you combine this with corruption and harsh enforcement and the power of Rome, you would find that the tax collector was a symbol of being a betrayer, a traitor, a lover of money, a hater of God's covenant. And he often was, so much so that he was not allowed to worship in the synagogue and he couldn't testify in a Jewish court because he was untrustworthy. In a word, he was the lowest of the low, a social outcast who had sold out his country, as it were, for the things of this world, a national scourge. Surprise. Jesus, as he walks through Galilee, he went and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office doing his work, and he said to him, follow me. He said to him, follow me. A tax collector in the place, that's not surprising so far, but this tax collector is now called by Jesus in a moment to be one of his most intimate disciples. From the lowest place of shame and corruption to being with Christ by the power of a gospel call of two words that offers to Levi the forgiveness of sins, the erasing of all debts, and an instantaneous, in a moment, ushering in to all the privileges of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And this is what Christ does. A phrase in the Gospels intimately connected to discipleship in Matthew chapter 4 and Matthew chapter 8 and Mark chapter 1 and Mark chapter 8 and 10 and John 1 and John 29. These words, follow me, punctuate the Gospels. And they are Jesus reaching out into a sinful world and saying, leave it behind. Come embrace me in the forgiveness of sins and power and glory that has founded me and live a completely new life. And Jesus gives these words unmistakably, without reservation, to anyone who will hear even the social outcast of corruption and wickedness that a tax collector represented. And in doing so, he changes your entire life. Where Jesus doesn't go, you no longer go. Where he does go, you now decide to go. The footsteps of Jesus Christ are like the lanterns that mark your path in this dark world. And the entirety of Levi's existence has changed. Everything. In a moment. You read that in the text. Look how profound the change actually is. So he left all, rose up and followed Him. No two weeks notice. No settling of affairs. An instantaneous repentance and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ that encompassed the totality of his life. He's called to be a Christian. In chapter 6, verse 13, he is numbered among the twelve whom he called apostles. Matthew, verse 15, or Levi, brought from the lowest to the highest by the call of the gospel, follow me. In a moment. Remarkable. He gives that prompt sacrificial obedience. He's called from the position of moral corruption to be a sympathizer. Do you remember when Jesus gave the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee? What did the Pharisee say? He said, I thank you that I am not like other men, and then he included adulterers, a whole list of sins, and even like this tax collector, the lowest of the low. Jesus says you've gone from the lowest of the low to the outskirts. As a matter of fact, the participation of heavenly glory. Profound, sudden, supernatural change worked by the authority and power of Jesus Christ. He calls, he says, yes, Lord, my life is yours. This is now made clear even in what happens next. Keep reading the text. Then Levi, he didn't just leave all, rise up and follow Jesus. Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house. He's very happy. He's so happy. that he, if you keep reading, there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with him. What does Levi do next? He says, use the words of the woman at the well in John chapter four, come meet a man who told me everything I ever did. He can't not speak about Jesus. He wants to do two things, exalt his Savior, and then tell everybody he knows about him. He wants to obey the Lord. His affections are changed. He's now a very happy man. He exalts Christ. He honors Christ. He tells his friends. This is what people always do in the Bible. When they come to hear the word of the gospel, they can't help but tell other people. Remember Legion. He said, I want to follow Jesus wherever you go. Jesus says, no, instead, go tell all your neighbors and friends about me. And this encounter with Jesus so changes him instantaneously, not just leaving behind, but I will exalt him. There's nobody in my whole world that I don't want to know him. He honors Christ, he tells his friends. You remember what David said when he had been forgiven? Then I will teach transgressors your ways. You know what's happening here? Out of the abundance of the heart, the man is speaking. My heart overflows with a goodly theme. The Lord is my Savior. In Acts 4 and verse 19, when Peter and John were told, stop preaching in the name of Jesus, remember what they said? We cannot but speak The love of Christ constrains us, Paul says. We are ambassadors for Christ, saying to the world, pleading with the world, be reconciled to God. Matthew is completely changed. Levi is unmistakably different. And we could pause here to learn something about what it means to be a Christian. The Bible teaches this repeatedly and clearly. that salvation in Jesus Christ and what you talk about are connected. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Paul said to the Romans that we do two things. We confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and we believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. Paul says to the Philippians that the true knowledge of the glory of Jesus Christ as mediator will lead to this one day that every knee will bow and tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of the Father. There's something inevitable about having an encounter with the saving mercies of Jesus Christ which overflows from your heart. It should be obvious and natural. What has Jesus Christ done for you? What has he done for you? First he went to the cross in your place and bore your sins in his body on the tree. Then he rose again from the dead. If you believe in Him, He gave you the gift of faith by which you believe mysteriously by the power of His Holy Spirit, the Spirit who now dwells in you and unites you to Christ. You just saw this depicted in baptism. He has clothed you, the Bible uses this language, with salvation by giving you His Son. Which means, you die tomorrow, you go to glory. Which means that when you pray, you have a Father who hears you. Which means that no matter what happens to this country in this present evil age, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, even if we are to suffer. Which means at the very end of the day, at the great resurrection of the just and the unjust, that as Jesus Christ makes that division, final division in history of the sheep and the goats, in the mysterious, holy, glorious mercy of God, you will now hear Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your rest. Should be obvious and natural that you would want to talk about this. So when is the last time the name of Jesus has been on your lips with your friends or your unbelieving neighbors? When have you last simply confessed your glorious salvation, the way of the Savior? When have you last talked about the cross? Again, your friends, your neighbors, your children? When's the last time you said, come to worship. There's a place where Jesus meets with His people. And He's given me life. And I want you to know the life that He alone can give. How's the world gonna know? We often complain, America is falling into pieces and darkness and descending into kind of a moral horror. It's all true and happening. How might it change? That people would know Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection. Let me go a little deeper. If there's no words, no confession, no joy, How could it possibly be that we know Him or love Him? It doesn't seem possible. I could probably think of ten, well, you could probably think of, and I can think of ten things in my life that really interest me. And I want to talk about them to others, and they are, on the scale of importance, so far down from this. This is the very best, the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field. Notice the scope of Levi's feast. He doesn't just pick a few people. Great feast in his own house. If he was today, he'd go through everybody in his contact list on his phone. LinkedIn, Facebook, neighbors. He'd go to Costco. He's filling every cart he can. He's pulling off the biggest feast. Why? I want to honor Jesus and I want you to know him. And he's inviting, notice, tax collectors. All the people who were as corrupt and vile as he was. And sinners. All the hangers-on from this corrupt world that he lived in. And he says, listen, I'm not ashamed. I have found Jesus. Or better, he found me. I want you to know him. Come meet him. Know him in ambitions. And this is what turned the world upside down. Men and women were willing to speak of the Savior who is Christ the Lord. Again, why is our country where it is at? Here's a question. Are we ashamed of our king who loved us and gave himself for us? The scene is so glorious. Look at it. They sat down with them, Jesus and his disciples and the dregs of Israel society, feasting around the Lord. The effect of the gathering was quite profound and powerful. It was glory. It was mercy being proclaimed. Christ was being exalted. And Jesus, when he turned and he saw the tax collector in his office and he said, follow me, surely he had in mind more. who would come to faith through Matthew's ministry, Levi's ministry, a waterfall of salvation from a single call. Now a plot twist, this turns into another confrontation at the end of the text. The scribes and Pharisees, now well known to us from John the Baptist ministry in the earlier part of this chapter, are complaining about this and they say, why do you eat with tax collectors? Eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners. There's a group of people who sees this glory and says, this has to stop. If you're a holy man, teacher of the word, get away from those dirty people. You and your disciples obviously are unfit to be speaking of the kingdom of heaven. The confrontation with the spiritual leadership of Israel will be a theme all through the gospel. We'll pick it up in the coming weeks, but what they did is another theme in the gospel we've already read, we'll read in the future chapters. They complained against the grumbling, they're muttering, this is the reasoning in their hearts, this is the internal unbelief swelling up in bitterness against Jesus Christ. And Jesus was blowing apart something that they held dear, which was an outwardly respectable religion rooted in this, that good people go to heaven by virtue of their own righteousness, and that good people associate with good people in their view. Jesus was doing something so markedly different to burn them up, And they complained and muttered against him, as he broke, in their view, what had been a perfectly good, outwardly respectful religion of works. How does Jesus respond? He basically is saying this. What you see, me, Levi, a room full of tax collectors and sinners, around a feasting table, is actually why I came. This is true religion. First, he does so by way of a parable. Those who are well have no need of this physician, but those who are sick. He's saying, would you criticize a doctor for being around sick people? The commentator put a few more illustrations behind that. Would you criticize a mechanic for fixing a broken car? Would you confuse a plumber for fixing plumbing? In other words, there's all kinds of occupations that are there to fix problems. The doctor being the highest picture of this, a doctor who actually, and doctors and nurses are amazing. What do they do all the time? They walk into places of disease, even infectious disease, They run into the trouble in order to save and help the needy. Jesus said, would you want your doctor to stop doing this? Or when you were at the bottom, would you want him to reach out to you and say, here, this is how you can be healed? That's what I'm doing. That's what I'm doing. This is what I came to do. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. If we were to shorten that, we'll get to the whole thing in a moment. I have come to call sinners to repentance. This is my ministry. The power of Christ's calling grace is here. I have come to call, to project my voice through human history and saving power and say, follow me, follow me, follow me, come to me. All you labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest. He said, I came to do this. This is why I'm preaching. I'm looking for this kind of person. Broken, destitute, rebellious, sinful outcasts. And I'm saying come. Repent and believe. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Follow me. If anyone thirsts, let him come. His whole ministry is just come, come, come to anyone who has need. because I have come to accomplish the salvation of which I declare to you now on the cross and by my resurrection." These are two great themes of Jesus' ministry, not only what he came to do on the cross and in the resurrection to give forgiveness, but to proclaim that forgiveness, call to him for that forgiveness, to apply that forgiveness. He said, this is what I'm here for. Why are you criticizing me? What is wrong? My call has power. My word penetrates hearts. I give life. And I generously proclaim it to the whole world. And then the rebuke at the same time. And here's sobering word, but there are some people What the text says, I have not come to call. Ooh, what does that mean? He says the righteous, what does this mean exactly? There's a class of people in the world, and he means the Pharisees right now, who as they judge the wicked and don't understand my salvation, in their self-righteous pride, turn away from me and you mutter and grumble against me. You did it when I forgave the man in the house at Capernaum, you're doing it again. You hate my forgiveness, my glory, my power, my kingdom, because you think you're good enough already for the holy courts of God. And I came to declare this call. Sinners need to come in repentance to God. And you won't repent. You're inwardly proud and empty and dead. There's something in the Gospels that's sobering. The capacity of the human heart to see the glory of Jesus Christ and remain unmoved, like Israel at Sinai. The same evil in their heart and life. Jesus says, you are resisting my call, my ministry, my purpose in pride. The sobering words Jesus is saying is, because of this, unless you repent, I'll pass you by. Second contrast, there's a class, Jesus says, of those called sinners. Here's the whole room full. That's who I came for. They have not taken pains to cover over, suppress their conscience, resist the spotlight of the Word. Instead, Levi came to me and he said, yes, Lord, ruined, bankrupt, corrupt, sinful, ungodly, here I am as I am, and I only need your grace and help. And when I said, follow me, he understood me to say, I'll forgive your sins, and he said, I'll serve you forever, Jesus. You need to understand I'm here at the table of sinners, because this is my mission, and I will not stop. I came for those who have a keen sense of the wrath to come, of unworthiness, of the misery and offense of sin, and so possess a simple awareness of profound need. I need a Savior, and I see it's Jesus. So again when Jesus says, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, Levi came. And I'm calling these sinners and I'm calling you Pharisees to humble yourself. Lay down your pride. and understand that I came for sinners like you and that you should be at this table, as it were, in this same category as all the rest. And then you would understand mercy. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Two things about our God and our response to Him. At the beginning I talked about urgency. The importance of responding to Jesus Christ now, right now. There are times that I remember in my life where I heard preaching and it burned up my conscience, but I didn't repent. I held on to that sin. Or something about the glory and power and mercy of Jesus Christ so broke me But there's also something in me that to be broken by it publicly, or in other words, to confess and acknowledge my previous sin and shame, there's something, so much pride that's in us. And one of the greatest dangers I came to learn was to ever wait to repent and believe, even for a moment. To hold anything back at all when you hear Jesus say, follow me. That this is grace and glory with urgency of eternity behind it. And you go now. So when you first feel, first understand, first hear, I want to talk to you young people here. You have heard me preach for years. I've been here long enough now to see you growing up. You've been privileged, you've been baptized to be under the sound of the gospel. But the call is urgent and it is for you, like Levi, to hear Jesus say, follow me and give yourself entirely to him. Don't wait. It's not tomorrow. The danger of playing games, the psalmist says, kiss the sun lest you be angry and you perish in the way. Jesus says, follow me. The only impediment to following from this text is not how big your list of past failures and sins are. That list cannot be too big. The only impediment is our present pride and our love of those sins. See the difference? Jesus is saying this morning, follow me. How? Trust Him. Remember His cross work. Deny yourself. Give your life to Him. He is worthy. And suddenly you'll find yourself telling the world. Maybe inviting your neighbors to your home. Going on a special grocery run. and saying, there's somebody who found me in my sins, his name is Jesus, and I would have you know about him. Or your neighbor, come to the worship of God and hear the preaching of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you about the marvelous grace of Jesus Christ, who calls and receives and eats with sinners. Let's pray. Lord our God, we ask this morning, for your spirit's help. When we think of the power and glory of that call in two simple words to Levi long ago, a man who up to that point had been so in love with himself and corruption and sin and money and was too busy with and even content with being ostracized from your covenant people just for a better life in this world. We think of how you reached in and broke all of those foolish assumptions, exposed His sinfulness, and at the same time declared Your mercy. And He immediately followed you and gave you glory and told the world. We ask of God that this would echo in our hearts again today, and that with a new determination to bring you glory, and to see that glory cover the earth as the water covers the sea, Lord, that we would bring you glory. And we would also pray this morning for any here who think that a half-hearted following of Jesus or holding Him at arm's length altogether would be a safe thing to do. Or deliver us from this pride which so easily creeps into our hearts or, in unbelief, dominates us. And instead, grant to us that sweet disposition that gives all to Him. We are thankful, O God, for such mercy as we feed on Christ. And we pray in His name. Amen. Look up and receive God's blessing. Peace to the brethren in love with faith from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity. Amen.