How Far Will Jesus Go to Rescue Sinners? [3-9-25]

NOTE: Due to a tech issue, there is no video from Sunday. The manuscript is below.

March 9, 2025

Luke 5:27-32

“How Far Will Jesus Go to Rescue Sinners?”

Here’s the foundational truth from these six verses:

GOD FORGIVES REPENTANT SINNERS

Let’s look at Luke 5:27-32:

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

And Levi made him 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 their 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 of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Real simple first point. Verse twenty-eight tells us that Levi is a repentant sinner. “And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.” That is a definitive sign of a changed heart. In an immediate act of faith, Levi follows Jesus. He has been forgiven.

Here’s the first thing we notice. Jesus takes the initiative in calling Levi. After a few moments of observing Levi at his tax-collecting work, Jesus invites Levi to follow him. 

Some of you were around in the 1970s. You might remember the “I Found It” ad campaign. It was launched by Campus Crusade for Christ. Perfect for a bumper sticker, but not good Biblical theology. The follow up messaging was Bible tracts explaining, “Here’s How You Can Find It, Too.”

Interesting sidenote. The campaign spawned another bumper sticker with another point of view – “I Never Lost It.” 

Besides poor Biblical theology, one confusion was what the “It” referred to. Jesus, after all, is a “he,” not an “it.” The campaign needed tweaking to

define the “it” as new life in Christ.

Not to be outdone by the 1970s, the 2020s have given us the “He Gets Us” campaign. Equally Biblically off-track.

Here’s the simple point of Jesus and Levi.

Jesus takes the initiative. He does the calling. He speaks faith into a person’s life. Jesus invites repentance. There’s no I found it. It’s always and forever, Jesus found me. Luke consistently makes the point that people who follow Jesus are obeying his word. “Follow me.”

In the case of Levi, at this point, he is not called to join the band of twelve. Jesus will do that later. As we will see in Luke 6:13-16:

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them 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 Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

For now, Levi is being called to follow Jesus as a disciple. Not yet an apostle.

The next step in our understanding is to know what Luke means in verse twenty-eight, “He rose and followed him.” The key is in the verb tense used by Luke. For all you grammar nerds…and I love you, because I could talk about language and grammar all day…the verb translated “to follow” is in the imperfect inceptive tense. It indicates that the action of following is just beginning or is in the process of becoming. In other words, as Levi begins to follow Jesus, he does so not knowing where the path will lead. Talk about absolute trust in your Savior.

What does Levi do? He abandons his former way of thinking and living. That’s it. Levi has begun the process of following Jesus. It will continue throughout his life. That’s what sanctification means. When you know that Christ has called you, and you repent, you begin the process of becoming a mature believer. That’s the whole point of Galatians 5:22-23. How do I know Jesus has called me? How do I measure my growth in following him?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Paul says that is one of the key ways of knowing your progress. If, more often than not, most of the time in most circumstances, those things define you, then you are living out of the imperfect inceptive tense of “to follow.”

Here’s the beautiful outcome of the call of Levi:

• He lost a finite earthly benefit and gained an eternal destiny.

• He lost material possessions and gained a spiritual future.

• He lost a secure and safe earthly position and gained a heavenly inheritance.

• He lost sinful friends and gained fellowship with the living Christ.

Jesus came to save sinners, of which Levi knows he is one. He walks in a new life.

Verse twenty-nine tells us what Levi does next. Of course, he hosts a banquet with Jesus as the honored guest. We’re now getting to the part that really gets under the skin of the Pharisees and their scribes. Who are Levi’s friends? Who are the only people he will associate with or who will associate with him? The riff-raff. These are the people who are, to even the most casual observer, social outcasts. Levi is changed. Now he hopes his friends have the same opportunity at transformation.

At this sight, of Jesus hanging out with the reprobates, what do the good, upstanding religious people do? They grumble. Luke uses an onomatopoetic Greek word for “grumble.” Gogguz. Let’s get the feel for it together:

GOGUGOGUGOGUGOGU…

That’s the only time I’m ever going to invite you to grumble in church. We usually don’t do that around here.

But the religiously pure and clean folks grumble because it isn’t right for Jesus to eat with these outcasts. Their rules build up social boundaries. Purity has to be maintained. The stench of pollution has to be avoided. 

Jesus is expanding the reach of God’s grace and mercy. Imagine that. Salvation for crooks and sinners. Gogugogugogu.

In a point that is all too obvious, the Pharisees next make a textbook passive/aggressive move. They grumble to Jesus’ followers knowing all too well he’s going to hear them. I loathe that move. Just speak to me directly. They’re not happy Jesus brings a different plan for salvation. And it is totally out of their control or influence. They are mad because:

People don’t need their system of control. People need Jesus.

Jesus hears them and he answers them. And he makes himself crystal clear. God is not looking for a moral majority. God is looking for a holy minority. And remember. It is God who does the calling. God does the searching. While it’s a bit long, Ezekiel 34:1-16 beautifully expresses God’s heart for His people:

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.          And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak”

Make no mistake. Related to the seeking and searching is verse thirty-twos “calling to repentance.” That is a huge point from Luke. Remember, Jesus goes hunting for the lost. Jesus goes to Levi’s feast not as a partier. Eating with them is a means of calling them to repentance. Where would each one of us be if Jesus didn’t come to call sinners to repentance? Where would we be? If I can put it bluntly, we’d all be on a path straight to hell. Grumbling all the way.

Finally, speaking with personal authority, Jesus tells them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” Jesus is being a wee bit sarcastic. “I’m here for the sick. I’m here for sinners.” That bites. Paul uses similar sarcasm in 1 Corinthians 4:8:

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!

Same biting sarcasm. Since you have it all figured out, then why do you even care who I eat and drink with?

The heart of Jesus…the heart of the gospel…is for sinners. Here’s 

something you might want to write down:

NOW IS THE TIME OF SALVATION.

That’s why Jesus is with Levi. And that’s why Jesus is with us today. Jesus seeks out and saves the lost. That’s why we say…as verse thirty-one so simply yet profoundly puts it…the church is not made up of righteous, self-sufficient people. The church is made of a repentant sinners. Amen? We’re not people who think we’re good. We’re people who know we’re not. We’re not people who bring some sense of self-righteousness to God as an offering of our goodness. No…no…no…we know we can only come to God covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Some people wonder. How could God save a sinner like me? Is there a purpose for me in this life? Is there a place for me in heaven? Look no further than Levi. Jesus calls all us sinners to repentance. What are we going to say to Jesus?

Let’s close with two observations from Charles Spurgeon.

The first one applies to the grumblers of verse thirty:

“THE GREATEST ENEMY TO HUMAN SOULS IS THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS SPIRIT WHICH MAKES PEOPLE LOOK TO THEMSELVES FOR SALVATION.”

The second one could very well describe the spirit present when Jesus joins Levi and his friends at the feast:

“LET THIS ONE, GREAT, GRACIOUS, GLORIOUS FACT LIE IN YOUR SPIRIT UNTIL IT PERMEATES ALL YOUR THOUGHTS AND MAKES YOU REJOICE EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE WITHOUT STRENGTH. REJOICE THAT THE LORD JESUS HAS BECOME YOUR STRENGTH AND YOUR SONG – HE HAS BECOME YOUR SALVATION.”

And together, the people of God said:

SOLI DEO GLORIA…

To the Glory of God Alone