Mark 2: 13-17

Mark 2: 13-17  Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.  As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.  While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.  When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”  On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

All of us who partake of this breakfast fall under the label the Pharisees used to describe Jesus' dinner companions as "sinners" and tax collectors.   However, we do not draw back from this appraisal, for we praise the Lord Most High that He found us in this category and lifted us up through the shed blood of his precious Son and the power of the Holy Spirit.  For Jesus came for us: the sick, the needy, the broken of heart and spirit, those bound by sin and shame.  However, He came not only for us but for the whole world.  The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  Therefore, all of mankind needs THE DOCTOR from heaven for all are terminally sick with the disease of sin; but God in his mercy sent us Jesus, the Savior, the BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR, THE LIGHT OF WORLD, to be the propitiation for all of mankind's sin.  Because of Jesus and his work on the cross, we can all come into harmony with the creator God and receive his grace gifts.  He makes saints out of sinners.  He makes orphans his children.  But without Christ, we are still sinners without hope.  No man can come to the Lord in his own sufficiency, through his own good deeds, by his own righteousness.  The Bible's primary message to all of mankind is that we humans need a Savior to be in right relationship with God, and God made a salvation plan from the beginning of time.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.  (John 3:16-21)

God is perfect, and He demands perfection from everything and everyone.  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  (Matthew 5:48)  We know we are not perfect, neither is everything in the world perfect, for the sin of all mankind has entered into the world, bringing corruption and death.  But still we who are human must be perfect if we are to see God.  We know heaven and Earth will pass away someday, but the Word of God will still abide.  The Word of God will still be present in the amorphous ethereal.  The Word is and was and ever shall be.  We will exist with God for eternity as long if we are perfect.  Each on of us must realize our perfection rests with God and his Son, Jesus Christ through the divine unction of the Holy Spirit.  In the triune God we abide: we live and breathe perfection for we are like them.  At this time, on this earthly journey, just as Jesus called Levi, we are asked by Jesus Christ himself, “Follow me.”  Following Jesus means yielding to him completely, trusting in his perfect will, knowing his plans are best for us.  When we walk in the light of the Lord we have no fear of the past because we have put our past under the blood of Jesus.  We do not fear today because today we are walking by faith and not by sight.  We may face trials, sorrows, disappointments, and the like; but hidden with Christ in God we look to our Savior, keeping our eyes on our high calling in Christ Jesus.  We remember who we are: sinners saved by grace and who He is: Lord of All!  We remember what Jesus told his disciples, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.  What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?  Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?  For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.  (Matthew 16:24-27)    

We know when Jesus called the tax collector, Levi, the epitome of unjustness and corruption, Levi did not question why Jesus called him or where he was going.  Levi simple got up and followed him.  We sinners around this table this morning receive a daily command of "follow me."  Others might wonder where we are going or why we hang around with such a bunch as we are with this morning.  But we know the commands of our Lord are always for our best interests.  We know that we have inherited the riches of God's kingdom and we look to life eternal with him.  The Bible says, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.  (Romans 8:14-17 KJV)  As dearly loved children, we belong to the family of God, the family that has created all things, for without the Father nothing has been created.  John writes: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.  (John 1:1-3)  IN AND THROUGH CHRIST we have inherited his righteousness, his likeness.  The Bible calls us saints, God's children, on many occasions.  We must always remember our calling:  I AM IN CHRIST JESUS WHO GIVES ME WISDOM, RIGHTEOUSNESS, SANCTIFICATION, AND REDEMPTION.  He has done the work that we could not do for ourselves.  Praise him forevermore!  To all that be [at this breakfast table], beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.  (Romans 1:7)