#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 Capernaum on the border between two Roman districts.  Any

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 Judea.  That

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 Jordan.  Now the reason we know all of this is

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

Jordan.

    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 Judea to hear John the

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.