From Tax Booth to Table: Grace Calls Sinners

``Jesus is the great physician. And not only can and does he feel heal us physically, he heals us spiritually. Jesus knows that Levi and his fellow tax collectors and and the others the others who were at the banquet, they're sinners. Jesus knows who he is mingling with, but he came into our world to die for sinners. He came into this world to be among us, to reveal not our sinfulness, but God's love and compassion, forgiveness, and grace. [00:54:49] (50 seconds)  #GreatPhysician

So whether you were here or not, last week, we looked at how Jesus was, by the lakeshore and a large crowd was gathering to to meet him, to hear him preach, to see maybe if he would perform any miracles. And it got to the point where Jesus, in his wisdom, realized it would be better if he got into a boat and just was out a little ways from the shore, so that everyone could see and hear him better. And so he asked to get into the boat belonging to Simon who he would later rename Peter. And so that's exactly what Jesus did. And then, of course, after his teaching, Jesus, sent the crowd away and he asked Simon to go out into the deep water and to let down his nets for a catch. There was a miraculous catch after Simon had complained they'd fished all night and caught nothing. And in response to that, in response to having, Jesus heal his mother-in-law sometime earlier in response to hearing Jesus preaching, Simon fell at Jesus' knees and said, go away from me lord for I am a sinful man. And Jesus says, follow me and you will fish for people. [00:35:10] (76 seconds)  #FishersOfMen

Do you remember how Simon responded when he saw that great catch of fish? He fell at Jesus' knees and he said, go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. He was willing to confess his sinfulness to Jesus. And here again, Levi knows that he has been transformed and redeemed by this man of God, Jesus Christ. [00:55:38] (25 seconds)  #HumbleConfession

And I know from many of you and and the testimonies that you've shared here and elsewhere that you have been encountered and changed and filled with the love and grace of Jesus Christ as well. And if you haven't, today is the day that you can have that experience when you can simply say, Lord, I am a sinner, but thank you for loving me. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for giving me new and eternal life. Thank you, Lord, for being my savior. [00:58:03] (38 seconds)  #TodayIsTheDay

When we become followers of Jesus Christ, when we experience his love and his compassion, his forgiveness, when we experience the holy spirit living on in us and experience new life and eternal life in Christ. We want others to experience him too. That's exactly what Levi wants. He doesn't just wanna have a a great meal for Jesus and his other disciples. He wants his friends to come and experience Jesus as well. [00:47:49] (33 seconds)  #ShareTheGoodNews

After this, after the the healing of that paralyzed man lowered down through the roof, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. Follow me, Jesus said to him. Verse 28. And Levi got up, left everything, and followed him. Presumably, Luke in writing this gospel has has left out some details either for the sake of space or because Luke didn't know the details. But presumably, I would say, not that I'm a betting man, that that Levi and Jesus had encountered each other before. That there would have had to have been something, in in their past that would have, facilitated Levi simply walking away not only from the tax booth, but from his occupation, from his career to follow Jesus. [00:38:48] (62 seconds)  #AnswerTheCall

Meanwhile, Levi is thinking, this rabbi, this miracle worker, Jesus, has turned my life upside down. And I want my friends, my fellow tax collectors to experience Jesus. I wanna see if he will turn their worlds upside down. Can you understand that? [00:47:22] (27 seconds)  #TransformedLives

What happens after that, we skipped over this morning, but you should be familiar with how Jesus was teaching. And there were, friends of a man who was paralyzed, and they brought the the paralyzed man on a mat. Remember this? And because there were so many people in and around the house where Jesus was, they went up on the roof and they dug a a hole in the roof and they lowered the the paralyzed man down through the roof. And again, we see the love and the compassion and the power of Jesus healing the paralyzed man. I decided not to preach on that today to just sorta skip over that because our youth leader, Noah, preached on that last year, and, I didn't wanna be redundant at all. He did an excellent job. And so we've we've skipped over that in Luke chapter five this morning, and we moved on to the next passage, which is where we we're gonna pick up right now in verse 27. [00:37:54] (54 seconds)  #HealingThroughFaith