#37. Luke 5:27-28 THE CALL OF
LEVI TO THE MINISTRY
Introduction
Both Mark and Luke call this man "Levi." In the book of Matthew he
calls
himself "Matthew" and that is the name with which we are most
familiar. It appears that Levi was the name originally
given to him and
later
he came to be known as "Matthew" Somewhat as a nickname. Since I am
more familiar with Matthew, that
is the name that I will probably use most
to refer to him during this
sermon. Out text today speaks of
Matthew's call
to the ministry.
I.
The setting for the occasion and Matthew's background
V. 27, "And after these things he went forth..." Perhaps you
will recall
that in our text last Sunday a
palsied man was brought to Jesus on a cot or
bed. They had trouble getting the man through the
door and so they carried
him up on the roof of the house
and tore a hole in the roof to let him down
into the presence of the
Lord. The Lord told the man that his
sins were
forgiven. The scribes and Pharisees in their thoughts
challenged this
statement
and accused Him of blasphemy. They said
that nobody can forgive
sin but God, which is
right. Then Jesus proved that He had
forgiven the
sins of the man by telling him
to rise, to take up his bed and walk.
Nobody
could
forgive sin but God, and thus Jesus proved that He is God dwelling in
human
flesh. He is the Son of God. He is the Christ of God. He is the
Savior of the world who is able to forgive
every sinner his sin.
Luke says that it was shortly after this event Jesus went forth. That
is, He went out into the
streets again. (V. 27), "...and saw a publican,
named
Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow
me." As Jesus traveled along the road He came to a
small building which was
built
right up close to the road. This
building housed the office of a
publican,
a man who collected taxes for the Roman government.
Historians tell us that there was such a tax office located on the road
right
outside of
merchandise
that was carried from one district to the other was taxed by the
Roman government. We are told that the chief items taxed by
this office was
fish. Fish were carried by the commercial fishermen
such as Peter and
Andrew, James and John into the
neighboring district for sale in the cities
and villages.
There is little doubt that during his earlier days, Levi (or Matthew)
had gotten acquainted with
Peter, Andrew, James, and John as these fishermen
regularly
stopped at his office to pay taxes on the fish which they were
carrying
to market.
It is not likely that they became friends----just acquainted. You see
almost
all Jews, especially the Jewish men of commerce, despised any Jew,
such as Matthew, who would work
for the Roman government and collect taxes
for them. It is also very likely that in those earlier
days Peter, Andrew,
James and John had another reason for
despising Matthew. In all likelihood,
he probably overcharged for taxes
and pocketed the difference. Most of the
tax collectors in that day did
and there is some reason to think that at
first
Matthew was no different than the rest.
He was looking out for number
one.
Then something happened in the life of Matthew to change his whole
outlook
on life. He heard a preacher down in the
wilderness of
preacher
was John the Baptist. Matthew was never
the same any more. John
preached
that the Christ was soon to come on the scene and that men ought to
repent
of their sin and believe in the Christ.
This Matthew did. He not
only repented of his sin, but he
went forward at John's invitation and was
baptized
by John in the River
that Luke later tells about it
in the Book of Acts. What Luke tells us
is
that all of the apostles heard
John preach, the made professions of faith in
the Messiah under his ministry,
and were baptized by him in the River
The life of Matthew was never the same after this. He continued to work
as a tax collector for the
Roman government, and he surely must have
continued
to collect enough taxes so that he could make a good living at it,
but he stopped the practice of
over charging. I think that at first,
the
Christian fishermen, Peter, Andrew, James,
and John could hardly believe it.
They came to the office of Matthew and
showed him the fish they had to
deliver
to the villages ahead and Matthew charged them such a reasonable
amount
for taxes that they were shocked. You
know---hey! What's going on
here? Not that they were complaining. They could just hardly believe it.
Then they found out that Matthew had been
down to
Baptist preach
and had gotten saved and baptized. That
is the same thing
that had happened to them. So they must have become good friends.
Then later these Christian fishermen stopped coming through his office
and Matthew must have inquired
about them. It did not take him long to
get
his answer. All four surrendered to preach, they had quit
the fishing
business,
and had started going with Jesus wherever He traveled. No doubt,
they were with Jesus when Jesus
came by Matthew's tax office on this
occasion.
II. The coming and the calling of Jesus
By this time, Matthew had just about figured out that this Jesus which
he was hearing so much about
is indeed the Christ as so many people were
beginning
to say that He is. So here he is sitting
in his office stopping
everybody
as they came along the road and seeing if they had any merchandise
which
he needed to tax. Here comes a great big
crowd of people along the
road and Matthew could see that
this was not the ordinary traffic that he
would
get. Much to his delight he learned that
Jesus was in that very crowd
of people. Jesus was somewhat in the middle of the
crowd. Then as the
crowd
drew up in front of Matthew's office, he went out to meet them and
check
for taxable goods, and surely enough, Jesus was in the crowd. Jesus
was in that crowd and He had
something special to say to Matthew.
Jesus
informed
Matthew that He wanted Matthew to quit his job as a tax collector
and to come and join up with
Him and to preach his word as Peter, Andrew,
James and John were already doing.
By this time there was no doubt in his mind who
Jesus really is. He
really
is the Christ. He is the Christ whom he
had trusted under the
ministry
of John the Baptist. Standing right
there before him was the very
Christ who had saved his soul and the
Christ was asking him to go with Him
and be one of His preachers.
What would it mean? For one thing
it would mean a cut in pay. It would
mean a considerable cut in
pay. Even after he had stopped being
dishonest
he still made an exceptionally
good living as a tax collector. He would
never
make that kind of money in the ministry of Jesus. Was he willing to
make that kind of sacrifice for
Jesus?
Another thing it would mean: It
would mean that he would be evil spoken
against. He knew that the scribes and Pharisees were
opposed to Jesus and
if he surrendered to the
ministry under Jesus they would oppose him too.
They would persecute him, too. Yet that was the least of his worries. As a
tax collector for the Romans he
was not like anyway. So he could not see
that it would make that much
difference to him if the scribes and Pharisees
did not like him.
There must have been little or no hesitancy on the part of Matthew. V.
28, "And he left all, rose up, and
followed him."
Matthew left his position
as a Roman tax collector. He left his good paying job. Luke says that he
left all and followed Jesus.
Listen, do you know what I believe? I believe that if we could only
talk to Matthew today that he
would tell us that he really did not make a
sacrifice
in surrendering to the ministry of Jesus.
His experiences with
Jesus far exceeded anything he gave
up. I believe that one day we will get
to talk with him and I believe
that is exactly what he will tell us.
Matthew will say that He gained far more
than he ever gave up and that he is
exceedingly
glad that he surrendered to the call to the ministry which Jesus
extended
to him.
What I want you to see is that actually Matthew received three calls
from Jesus. One call was the call to salvation. Jesus, Himself, did not
personally
preach to him and extend this call.
Instead Jesus had John the
Baptist to do the preaching of the gospel
to Matthew and extend the call to
salvation. Thank God Matthew heard John preach and thank
God that Matthew
responded
to that call and placed his faith in the Christ. He did not know
at that time that Jesus is the
Christ, but he believed in the Christ that
John preached and trusted in Him as his
Savior.
Another call that Jesus extended to him was the call to make a public
profession
of his faith and to be baptized. Matthew
did that. He publicly
professed
to believe in the coming Christ and publicly went forward to John
and was baptized by him.
Thirdly, Jesus called upon John to surrender his life to the preaching
of God's word. This, too, was a call to which Matthew
surrendered.
Throughout the rest of the earthly
ministry of Jesus Matthew gave himself to
sitting
at the feet of Jesus and learning the truths of God. Then he spent
the rest of his own life
preaching and teaching those things to others.
He
gave his life to the preaching
of the gospel to the lost that they might be
saved
and to the preaching of the many truths of God to the saved that they
may know how to do the will of
God in their lives. He even spent part
of
his time writing down the
truths of God in a book so that men may read them
and study them after he is dead
and gone.
III. What this means to you
Now let me raise a question to you:
What does all this mean as far as
your own personal life is
concerned? That is what I want you to
see today.
I want you to see what the call of Matthew
means to your life today. In the
first
place, it is men like Matthew who are preaching the gospel to the
unsaved
today. These are men who are called of
God just as Matthew was
called
to preach the gospel to the lost. You
have heard some of these men
preach
God's word and God has used their message to convict you of your need
of salvation just as the
preaching of John the Baptist convicted Matthew.
They, along with Christian friends who,
even though they are not preachers,
have convinced you that you had
better make a change in your life or you are
going
to wind up in the fires of hell. You
know that once you are in those
flames,
you will never never never
get out. So what you ought to do is to
get right with God while you
have the opportunity to do so. Now,
before it
is everlasting too late put
your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior.
I
can guarantee that throughout
all eternity you will thank God that you did.
Another thing that it means to you is that if you know that you have
trusted
Jesus Christ as your Savior, you ought to present yourself to this
church,
or at least some Biblically sound New Testament church as a
candidate
for baptism. Baptism does not save
anyone. Jesus is the Savior.
Baptism is not a Savior. But if you are already saved then you ought
to be
baptized
as Matthew was baptized and as all of the other apostles were
baptized.
Still another thing that this Scripture means to perhaps some of you is
that God is calling for you to
preach His word and you ought to surrender to
that call. Jesus needs preachers today just as much as
He needed preachers
back then. I don't know but what He need preachers even
more today than He
did then. Now not all of you are called to preach. The Lord does not want
all chiefs and no Indians. But I can safely say to you that if the Lord
is
calling
you to preach, He will put that desire so strongly in your heart
that you can know that this is
what He wants you to do. Let me say:
Please
do not try to be a preacher
unless you are certain that God has called you
to preach. But if you are certain that God has called
you to preach, then
for heaven's sake surrender to
that call and make yourself available to God
so that you can be used.
Now I said that not all of you are called to be preachers and that is
true. But the Lord is calling upon every saved
person to present himself
to the Lord to be used of God
in His service. So even if the Lord has
not
called
you to preach, He can use you to do many things in His service. Even
right
here in this church is can do things for His honor and glory. The
Lord can use you to reach out into the
neighborhoods and cities all around
this church to spread the gospel
news to your relatives, your friends, your
fellow
workers, your customers, and your neighbors.
God can also use you to
help support the missionaries
who do go out on the field to preach the
gospel.
Conclusion:
I am going to ask that every unsaved person here humble yourself before
God and acknowledge that you are a sinner
in His sight. I am going to ask
you to confess to God that you
are helpless to save yourself and get to
heaven
all on your own. I am going to ask you
to look to Jesus Christ and
to call on Jesus and ask Him
to save your soul. I am going to ask you
to
count
on Him---trust in Him to save you and keep you out of the fires of
hell.
I am going to also ask that if there are
Christians here today whom the
Lord would lead to unite with this church
on promise of a letter or by
statement
or by baptism, that you come and present yourself to the Lord and
to this church.
If, by chance, there just might be someone here whom God has called to
preach
who has not already made a public commitment of your ministry that
will you come forward today and
surrender to the call.