Jan. 13, 2023 - Just Informed Talk - Craig James
10:07
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| Hi and welcome. | |
| We have another episode of God's Grace is Greater for you guys. | |
| Today we're in the book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke. | |
| We're in chapter 5 and we're going to be talking about the calling of Matthew. | |
| This is actually a very powerful story and there's a few powerful lessons we can take away from it. | |
| And I just want to show you guys this incredibly powerful historical account of Jesus calling Levi, who would become Matthew, his disciple, to follow him and... | |
| And it gives us two very important principles for the Christian life that I think we can really use these days in understanding how to follow God more closely with the faith that we are called to have. | |
| So with that being said, let's go ahead and jump into the call of Matthew right now. | |
| We're in Luke chapter 5, verse 27. | |
| We're reading up to verse 32, and we're going to talk about it. | |
| Let's see. | |
| It says here. | |
| Now, again, for context, let me just tell you where we're picking up from. | |
| Where we're picking up from is Jesus performing the two miracles, healing the leopard and the paralytic, where he is confronted by Pharisees who don't believe in his power and really doubt what he's able to do. | |
| But he essentially tells them that He says to them, is it easier for me to say your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk? | |
| Essentially proving there that he is the Son of God and they were still not believing him. | |
| So that's where we're picking up from. | |
| And now this, right after it, the historical account goes straight into Matthew being called by Jesus to follow him. | |
| Let's go ahead and read. | |
| After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, follow me. | |
| So leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow him. | |
| Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for him at his house. | |
| Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests with them. | |
| But the Pharisees and the scribes were complaining to his disciples, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? | |
| Jesus replied to them, The healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick do. | |
| I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. | |
| I love this incredible verse and I'm very thankful for it because I think it tells us this incredible two principles I think we can all live our lives by. | |
| First, we're going to look at the story of Matthew and how he was called, right? | |
| Now, I think that if you look at this contextually, it would be easy to probably say that Matthew wasn't just deciding to follow some random guy who turned around and said, follow me on the street. | |
| Surely, by that time... | |
| Matthew, Levi, had to have been aware of Jesus and aware of his ministry and aware of what was happening around the area where he was hearing these stories probably of miracles being performed. | |
| Now, in those days, Matthew, Levi, was acting as a tax collector, and this is a hated person. | |
| Kind of like the IRS today, we don't really like people taking our money and giving it to things that we don't approve of. | |
| In those days it was almost, well certainly it was probably much more worse if you would consider the fact that the Jews were being taxed by Augustus Caesar in the Roman Empire, and they were being occupied, and they were basically living in subservience to the Roman Empire, which was working as an authority over them. | |
| And they actually despised Romans, and they actually saw it as treachery and betrayal when somebody would go and work with the Roman Empire against them, and that's what they saw tax collectors as. | |
| They were betraying their own. | |
| And I really do believe that there is something so powerful about understanding how in the face of objections of those who are foolhardy, those who are selfish, those who are looking and conceited and self-serving, that we can find in this little story here of Matthew the same courage that we are asked to have every single day. | |
| Knowing who Jesus was without actually knowing everything that he would be and become and what Matthew's life would end up like, he took a leap of faith and followed Jesus, and all Jesus had to do was ask once for him to follow him. | |
| So, what did he do? | |
| He left everything behind, he got up, and he began to follow Jesus. | |
| And I think that is something we need to do in our lives. | |
| When you're given this great opportunity, you must seize it. | |
| And God is calling on you. | |
| If you can't feel it, God's calling on your heart right now to give your life over to Him. | |
| And we should all want to be more like Matthew. | |
| But then there's this great scene that takes place afterwards. | |
| So Matthew, who's seen as a traitor, a tax collector, a sinner, those who are looked down upon by the Jews of the time, We're good to go. | |
| They bring all of these sinners and the Pharisees and the scribes look down upon it and they go to challenge him and they say essentially to him, why are you eating with these horrible people? | |
| Saying it to Jesus. | |
| They say, why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners? | |
| Why do you go to these people who don't deserve to be near us holy Jews, right? | |
| And Jesus makes a simple reply. | |
| The healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick do. | |
| And That is how Jesus looks at us all, right? | |
| When we are at our weakest, when we're at our lowest, when we think all hope is lost, when we have felt like we've gone so far off and away from God that we are unsalvageable, that we cannot be saved, that's when Jesus may be the closest to us. | |
| So if you think that you've gone too far away from Jesus and that your life is taking you so far away from God that you don't have an ability to be saved, I think you're wrong. | |
| And this verse speaks to why you're wrong. | |
| Because Jesus isn't around just the righteous at the church, even though he is with us there as well. | |
| Because he says in Matthew 28, he will be with us always to the end of time. | |
| But It may be that he is closer to those who are the furthest away, knowing that they are the ones who need him more than the righteous do at that moment. | |
| Because he goes on and says, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. | |
| So Jesus came to save sinners. | |
| Those who are lost will be found. | |
| There's a parable we'll read further on. | |
| About the shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the one lost sheep, and he'll rejoice more about finding the one lost sheep than the 99 being left behind and staying. | |
| And in the same way here, we learn that wherever we're at, however far we think we've gotten away from God and Jesus in our lives, they're still with us, and they're there forever. | |
| Because that is what Jesus told us He would do. | |
| He would be with the sick. | |
| And when we are sinful and living a sinful way and lost, we need Jesus that much more and He is with us. | |
| So, I want you to know two things. | |
| When Jesus comes into your life, however he comes, whether you hear him from others or you read for yourself in the Bible or you have an epiphanal moment where Jesus comes and touches your life in some form or fashion, answer the same way that Matthew did. | |
| Yes, Lord. | |
| When God calls, you follow. | |
| And you give everything up for it. | |
| And it will be the best decision because God will provide everything you need. | |
| And the second thing is remember that no matter how far off you are, how far away you are, God is with you. | |
| He's there waiting for you. | |
| He's still waiting for you right now because He knows that the sicker we are, the more lost we are, The more unsalvageable we think our lives are, that's how he's going to be there for us the most. | |
| So I hope that spoke to you, and we're going to wrap it up with a prayer, and then we'll wrap it up from there. | |
| Dear Lord and Heavenly Father, thank you so much for being with us always. | |
| Lord, we pray we learn from this story of Matthew about the power of... | |
| Fellowship in you and following you, Lord, and the power of understanding how it is in our darkest moments in the times when we think we are furthest from you that we may be nearest and that it may be that that knowledge will save our lives. | |
| So we thank you for everything you've given us, Lord. | |
| We thank you most of all for our eternal salvation. | |
| In Jesus' name, amen. | |
| Alright guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode of God's Grace is Greater. | |
| We'll see you on the next one. | |
| Until then, my name is Craig. | |
| Same time, same place tomorrow. | |
| I hope you guys have a good one. |
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