Mark: Follow Me

So I thought I'd start us off this morning with a question. What would it look like if our lives would we live our lives to show God's mercy?

How would our daily lives be affected if that was one of the kind of requirements? That we had on our checklist in the morning of what our day would look like, you know, we put together our to-do list. I love to do list cuz I love checking that thing off. It's the motivation for me sometimes even do something. So what would our lives look like if the thing one of the things on our to-do list was to show God's Mercy today? God's mercy can also be known as compassion. We talked about compassion a couple weeks ago and the idea that when we lose our when we live our lives from a place of compassion. That's a pretty clear indicator that were on God's mission. When I thought about this question, what would it look like if we lived our daily lives to show God's mercy automatically without even thinking for longer than 30 seconds. I thought of my friend Julie Julie is dubbed Saint Julie at my church back home because she is somebody who just chooses God's mercy specifically to kids in our city back home that have rougher lives. They live in the projects of Halifax and about 10 years ago. I think now call Julie to this group of people. God called Julie to show God's mercy to the ragtag group of kids that everybody else kind of put off to the side. They were marginalized they lived in homes where there was a cycle of poverty. So there wasn't a lot of expectation in their lot for their lives. There wasn't a lot of XP. expectation for how they should act or live Julie knew that God called her to work with these inner-city kids. So the the reason I'm kind of banging on that a little bit is because sometimes God calls us to a certain group of people. There's a certain group of people that will just the brakes are heart. Now does that mean it's always easy know when Julie first started meeting with these kids. She went to the local YMCA. She rented a room and she said I'm going to make sure every day that I meet with these kids. I tell them about Jesus. Well when the first night she opened up this program, no kids came. Overtime kids started to come but they weren't necessarily good to her. There was times where the kids would come and throw rocks at her car throw rocks at her and you know all the things that would deter you from really loving and showing compassion and mercy happened to Julie, but she persevered So what does it look like in our lives when we make, you know, God's mercy of to-do list. I think on our to-do list but also to do it to people that society as a whole tends to marginalize and put off to the side. So as you think about that, the thing that we're going to really focus on today is God's mercy. You want to grab your bible? We're going to be in Mark chapter 2 if you grab one of the little Bibles around if you can see that little text, we're on page 32 in there. So Mark chapter 2 and we're going to be looking at verses 13 to 17. I'll give you a minute to flip their Mark to 13 to 17 and page 32 and that little bible there.

So Jesus, we looked at last week. Jesus I was baptized by John the Baptist he has a started his Earthly Ministry. He's gone into the synagogue and he is asked the group of people that he's sharing with to repent and believe the good news. And that's actually the first words of Jesus in The Book of Mark, which is pretty cool because I really shows what marks focus is in this gospel. So Jesus has preached he has astonished the crowd. They have said you're even like the this is a new teaching. This is something even better than what we have been hearing from the scribes and then he heals a man who's demon-possessed somebody who's trying to get in the way of his teaching and he says be silent come out of that man and it happens just like that. Jesus has power is greater than the power of the enemy. So when we pick up in this verse Jesus has continued healing and he has just healed a paralyzed man, which is a pretty well-known story in the scriptures because it's such a amazing show of love from the friends for this person the trust that they had in Jesus for friends take a man who's paralyzed. They try to get to Jesus but the Crowds Are So Grand because Jesus is well known that's new fresh teaching people are just gravitating towards it so they can't get in to see Jesus. So they go to the roof, right, you know this one they take the roof off because they know if they get this man to Jesus he will heal him so that the friends lower him in and the first thing God says or Jesus says is your healed And the Pharisees the religious leaders around and say who are you to say that you like that this man sins are forgiven. Only God can say that and he says to them will what's easier telling this man that his sins are forgiven or telling him to get up and walk. So the power of Jesus continues all throw the Book of Mark and so this man he gets up and walks and then the other Gospels it says he rolled up the mat and took it with him and I was a really bold statement like I don't need this matter anymore this math. I want scary me. I'm now carrying with me and that's what the gospel does and mark the gospel of Mark is all about again, like some people say, you know taking the the world at the time and turning upside down but really it's taking what is upside down and turning it back right the way it should be. So that's what happened up to this point and and mark 2 verse 13 We read Jesus went out again beside the sea. So this is right after he has healed the man the whole crowd was coming to him and he was teaching them then passing by he saw Levi the son of alphaeus sitting at the toll booth and he said to him follow me and he got up and followed him while he was reclining at the table and Levi's house many tax collectors and sinners reading with Jesus and his disciples were there were many who were following him when the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with Sinners and tax collectors. They asked his disciples. Why does he even tax collectors and sinners when Jesus heard this he told them it is not those who are well who need a doctor but those who are sick. I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners, Will you join me in prayer?

God as we examine your word today as we look at who Jesus was and how you used him to heal the world. Would you give us insight into the words that we read and the words that are shared here here this morning.

The scripture say that we were anointed.

To share the good news. So I'm asking for that anointing here this morning as I stand to share the good news of Jesus.

Just as our call to worship said that. It helps us to enter into Wonder.

I pray that we would all be wondered. I know it's not a word but in awe of Who You Are.

And that would be accomplished by knowing a little bit more about who you are Jesus Through the understanding of the Holy Spirit.

Dad just show us who you are today when we asked.

In the name of Jesus. I pray amen.

So the first thing that we're going to look at in the word today, the first point I want us to really understand is that God's mercy sent Jesus to sinners. Jesus again has just healed the paralyzed man. He's had this little debate with the religious leaders around him and then he leaves and he's going back to the Sea. We showed you the Sea of Galilee last week in Capernaum. So Jesus is still in Capernaum, whether he left and came back that's where his ministry is happening this In this passage and you know, he's just walking he's just going about his business and he sees this man named Levi at a tax collecting booth. There are a few things that we need to understand about tax collectors in that day to make it to understand how radical it was that Jesus would go to this man named Levi who others have called you who we believe is the author of The Gospel of Matthew to follow him.

Even even active him saying follow me. He's saying rely on me, you know, it's not just about commands and obedience. Although that is a really big part of Christianity what Jesus is really saying when he says follow me to every follower of Christ he saying rely on me and I think that would have been quite radical for Matthew Levi at the time because again, he was a tax collector.

In the in the Jewish teaching call the talmood. The the Outlook of tax collectors was quite low. They equated it to murderers and thieves that is how low they thought of tax collectors. And because Tax Collectors often would use their privilege of being Tax Collectors to be, tax collector. If you had to actually bid against others to get that position and in the Roman culture where capernum is from a Jewish perspective Tax Collectors where I get in the low of the low they were Jewish people who became Tax Collectors were even lower because they were Roman sympathizers. They were people that again even bid for this position. They pay their own money to be able to do this because they knew it was The Money Team basically as long as the tax collectors took in what needed to be giving to Caesar they could keep whatever they took above and beyond that. So if somebody owe $10, they may charge 20 and pocket the 10. That was I think the majority of the way they got paid right? So the more that they wanted to make the more they had to violate really these people and take more money than they should have.

So the question that made me think of it is like these are the kind of people that Jesus wants to be his disciples. Like that's pretty radical right like to go to somebody a tax collector. Summer really a thief and say follow me.

Jesus is saying he wants Matthew to accept and follow his leadership the things he commands and his guidance. Let me see the the follow me again in verse 15 and it's a little bit different when Jesus name follow me to Matthew. He is saying like surrender all and be my disciple be somebody who learns from me. In verse 15 when it says that people that were following him to this meal. It didn't necessarily mean they were his disciples it meant they were literally following him around. So Jesus would have Jewish people Gentile leaving at that time that would follow him around and here is teaching but again, like for a rabbi to go to a person and say follow me was very radical for that time often. It was almost like a game show in a sense where rabbis would stand up and teach and if people decided they wanted to follow them that that particular why they would But for Jesus to go and say I want you to follow me and you to follow me and you to follow me was Radical enough, but then he also went to the lowest of the low and said follow me follow me follow me. It was huge thing for Jesus and the people that were around him at the time.

One of the things that we see about, you know, God's mercy sent Jesus to Sinners, but then it was almost like a ripple effect because when Matthew decided to follow Jesus there was other Sinners that followed Jesus through Jesus was sent to Sinners you were sent to Sinners and you know, it's an ongoing thing in verse 15. We see Jesus having this meal at the Matthews House meeting with tax collectors and Sinners and even this idea of reclining was a very intimate thing one of the commentaries I read said when you replying to somebody at a table You're vulnerable to that. Because their hand are at your back, so if there were people that wanted to harm you they can do that at the table, right? Cuz they're your laying down your you're seeing we sit around a table. We can look left and right we can see the whole table. But if I'm reclining and your reclining behind me, I'm vulnerable to you and there was times where people would use that opportunity to kill people that they weren't happy with the fact that Jesus would recline with these people was a big thing to even eat with them was a really huge thing, you know, if you understand the Jewish law and to be with Sinners to to eat with Sinners with a really huge thing. So again, like most of the time when Jews would have a meal together, they would sit like we would they would sit around a table and that was ordinary but reclining was more formal. And I'm one of the things that I read about was this idea that a lot of deals would be done at these tables with the reclining. So the idea that Jesus was basically I mean he was welcoming these Sinners to be with him, but he was Giving them honor showing them honor which was something that was very very counterintuitive for that time. It shows us that Jesus is Ministry has a Focus right like so we're only in Chapter 2 of Mark and already he's eating with tax collectors and sinners in The Book of Mark you'll see it's a very rapid very fast pace Mark wants to get to the point and the point is at Jesus's focus with the least the last and the Lost. God's mercy sent Jesus to sinners. Are the other day I was watching a video actually looking for things that that BJ could use with the kids and I came across the video of a man named John Wesley. So John Wesley is kind of the founder of sorts of the Wesleyan Church that crossroads is a part of a quick snippet when John Leslie was a kid. He almost died in a fire in his house and all of the rest of his family had a big family. They were all already out of the house but his mom, you know, but for her child and we need to get John out so they got John Oates and she said okay, there must be a reason that God saved my son, you know, we move these circumstances. So John goes on to become clergy in the Anglican Church. Of the UK and was very very strict in Holiness very strict and doing the right thing saying the right things fasting two times the week like he was very regimented and then he actually came across the sea to America and his goal was to convert the Native Americans. However, he left very heartbroken because he didn't even see one converted to that the Anglican Faith so he comes home. He's distraught and while he was gone his brother Charles met with a man named Peter Buller who told him? Okay, we're saved by grace through faith. We're not saved by these methods that you guys have been using Define God's favor. You have God's favor because you are saved by grace through faith. So John ends up going to a Bible study and he it's called Aldersgate. Landing where he was and he says he had this moment where his heart was strangely warmed and that was when he received the Holy Spirit, so he thought he was good with God for many many years and then somebody preach the simple gospel to him know you're saved by grace through faith John becomes, you know filled with the spirit wants to share this message in the Anglican Church. He's a clergy so he goes to church after church and they hate this message. He's out of the friend saying you are not safe because you read the Bible everyday, you are not safe cuz you pray you are saved by grace through faith and they take them out and they kick them out and they kicked them out enough times that the Anglican Church actually took away his credentials. They told him you can no longer be a member of the clergy. So John just distraught. He doesn't know what to do. But he knows that this message needs to get out. So if you understand English and there was a lot of coal mining at that time and it was horrible conditions horrible horrible conditions. And even in the Anglican Church, you couldn't go to church unless you were like a high member of society. So if you were poor and you didn't fit a certain class, they wouldn't even let you in their church. So John said this message needs to get out. So he goes to these mining field and he shares the gospel like he's just so on fire because you live this religious thing for so long and then he finally got the spirit. He was like, so he went out he was sharing it. Anyways tons of people are being converted saying yes or relationship with price. They were leaving the mine because there was a new purpose and their lives like they thought this was all life was and many of them died on a daily basis because the conditions were so horrible. So anyways, they're being converted. They're going back to London. They're starting new lives and the owner They're really ticked off because they're losing all their workers. So the owner of one of these mine sent this man named George to go and kill John Leslie like he wants this message to stop because he didn't want to lose any more workers. So John's at a friend's house having lunch. They throw bricks in the window. They come in the house. They take Johnny as I'm up by, you know, his caller kind of thing and he's about to kill him and John to share the gospel.

So God sent Jesus to Sinners John knew God was sending him to Sinners to preach in an open field with so radical in that day that people were astonished by this new teaching. They were hearing a new teaching about who God is the guy who's there to kill John hears. The gospel says I can kill this man becomes a follower of Jesus and years later is still remembered as somebody who also shared the gospel. Jesus went and ate with sinners. They ate with Sinners the message spread John went to the field shared the message interactive with more centers the message spread all the way to the point where we are in a church right now that is named after a guy who? Bridgeton England, you know and and rode horseback and did open preaching for the rest of his days. Little acts of faith. We don't know the effect that they can have and John was in a place where he was at the lowest of the low, right? Like he had lost his clergy status. He thought his ministry was done, but it was really just beginning.

We see Jesus seeking Sinners accepting them and having fellowship with them.

My question from this is when was the last time we let God's mercy send us to sinners.

I'm convicted by this.

We have a message that can change people's lives.

When was the last time God's mercy that Justice spinners?

The next thing I want is to see is that God's mercy through Jesus healed.

motivation means a lot in verse 16 we see the leaders religious leaders the scribes who were Paris. He's we see them. Going to Jesus at this meal that he's having with tax collectors and sinners.

To me when I read this it's odd that they would even go to Matthew's house. Because Matthew was a sinner in their eyes. He was a tax collector. He was the lowest of the low. Evan can you put up the slide of the house?

So this is a first century Israelite house.

The point of showing you that is you can see that there was a lot of motivation for these tax collector for the Pharisees. The religious leaders to go. It wasn't like they would just happen across this this meal. There would have been a buzz going on around that Jesus was in fact eating with tax collectors and sinners.

So they would make their way to Matthew's house and they would go up the stairs and go to the living space.

The kitchen there was in at the bottom, but they would have had to meet has to have made a lot of effort. to go But the one thing at least at this point in the story that we don't see a lot is the religious leaders going to hear Jesus teach.

The question that I have in my mind when I read this is how can the story have been different if they would have just allowed themselves to be open to the teachings of Christ? Maybe they would have been convinced that this man is the Messiah and maybe and I'm sure for some of them they were they they were converted to this Christianity. But how many more would have been If instead of seeking out to accuse and to be provoked by the things that Jesus was doing what if they would just sit and rest at his feet and listen to him teach.

And then they asked the question, but they asked it to the disciples not to Jesus himself. What is Jesus doing eating with tax collectors and Sinners and in verse 17 Jesus overhears? and he says it is not those who are well who need a doctor but those who are sick.

I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners.

The idea behind the word. Well that Jesus was talking about he was talking with somebody who is vigorously healthy, you know when I picture somebody like that I I think of

Vin Diesel in all or Terry Crews if anybody is a Brooklyn Nine-Nine fan TV show these big guys right that are super but they could lift up a truck and that really is to the extent of what this well mean somebody who is physically well vigorously healthy is what Jesus is trying to say and when I think of myself and I think of the other people that I know who follow Jesus not everybody is bear. So as much as this is a message for The Sinner, this is a message for the follower of Christ that we are always on a journey and I think remembering that humble.

There was a time in my life a following Christ that I did try to remove myself from all of the friends that I had before. I started following Jesus a part of it was because I was heartbroken to be around them to to see what they were doing in their lives. But a part of it was that I thought I was better than them. I thought I had found something that made me greater than them and that thought allowed my heart to heart in for who they were and distance myself from them. Since that time, you know, some of those relationships are still happening, but there's a part of me who Mourns what I could have done the gospel that I could have shared with them. If I didn't only see the bad things about them if I saw the things that God saw in them that he wanted to redeem and restore and use for his kingdom and His glory So are we vigorously healthy? I think we can have seasons in our relationship with the Lord that we are in a fantastic spot with him and that all the more should push us out and go to the centers and tell them that Jesus offers healing. The stick that he's thinking of like it is a bad sickness right like it seems like he's too extreme. To be disadvantaged, you know, these tax collectors and sinners. They might have had the money that might have had, you know the goods of the day, but they are at a disadvantage because they didn't know Christ.

Jesus came to bring healing in a holistic way physically spiritually mentally he will he wants to get into every part of our being and he'll that he wants to say, okay. We worked on this now, let's work on that and it's an ongoing process.

It's a pretty huge jump. Like I said, it's with one extreme to the next.

Sometimes we hear miraculous stories of people being healed from things the moment they say yes to Jesus. But I think what we often forget is at its though in those little things too. Jesus wants to continue to move us towards wholeness and him often. We don't get there right away. Return something over to God, we want him to heal it but it's a process and it takes time and I think the more we can remember that the more humility the more compassion that we can have for those that we look at and say well compared to me their way back there. But when we focus on ourselves in the things that Jesus still needs to heal in US it brings that humility and allows us to go back into the world and in dissenters lives. Is there anybody in here who likes to go to the doctor?

now I didn't think so. But there might be doctors that you like more than others. Yeah. I would argue the reason that we like some doctors over others is because of their characteristics because of who they are. Maybe they have more knowledge which is fantastic. But I'm sure there's some doctors are there that have all the knowledge in the world, but are complete jerks and we do not want to go to see them. We will keep going back to the one who has compassion on us. The one who will identify the things in our lives that needs healing but will have compassion and be gentle with us and tell us this is what you need to get from A to B.

When I was pregnant with Travis, we were still living in the same time, which is kind of going back to the doctor that I had when I was pregnant with Evan and was so what I went to my family doctor and let her know I was pregnant. She was like, okay, we'll get you set up and I said no, I'm not going back to that doctor. I did not like meeting with her through the process. I didn't like how she dealt with me on the follow-up. I'm not going back. And so she said, okay, we'll find you a new doctor and the experience even though it was pretty much month by month the exact same process that I have a 7 with so much more enjoyable because I was doing it with somebody that I knew cared about me had compassion on me. We need God's mercy to be healed. To be vigorously happy and healthy. The question I thought about this was are we settling for Less? the vigorous health and are we there because we think we're good enough. You know, we've said sorry to God enough. We got our tickets to heaven. So we're good enough or should we for ourselves be seeking something more BC can complete health. And then at the same time letting that Mercy that God's pointed. Scott always poison to us so we can pour out. If we cut off his Mercy for us, we're not going to have mercy for others. So as we let him heal us in a deeper way, then we can take that and put it back out to our community to our friends who are far from him and we can do it. We can point out that they are a sinner in need of a savior, but we can do it with compassion. there is a difference in our message because of the medium the message stays the same the medium sometimes needs to be a little different and I think in our culture we've gotten to the point where Even the next generation is saying it's wrong to share your fate. Because I've seen it done very poorly by the generations before then. It is made them fearful of sharing the good news. We can share the good news with compassion. I'm going to invite the band to come back up and just remind you of the two points today God's mercy. Send Jesus to sinners. And God's mercy through Jesus heals sinners. What will see throughout the Book of Mark and any other gospel you read even when you get to Paul and you read about his missionary journey in the book of Acts. We see that God's Mercy is dangerous. Animal send us to places that most religious people don't want to go. They going to someone's house to point out what's wrong with them but not to give compassion and mercy, but that's who Jesus was. He went to the dangerous places, even though he knew it would take him to the cross. Because he knew that Sinners need to hear the good news and they need to become righteous. And that's done by grace through faith. So my question is, where are you going to go this week? We lead busy lives and I think if we just wait for things to happen, they won't. So my question is, where are you going to go this week? Who is God sending you specifically to? to share the good news

Who is the tax collector in Center that God is bringing to your mind, but he wants you to go and share his good news with. I started the message by talking about Julie, Saint Julie.

She kept going back.

And many of those kids follow Jesus today. because of her Ministry and they're breaking the cycle of poverty. They're going to University and College. because one girl told them they were important.

Who can we impact even when we're having rocks thrown at us? Who can we go to and share the good news of Christ?

Would you join me in prayer?

Jesus you still allowed the world.

That you obeyed the father and came to Earth.

in the form of a baby to grow and know your culture to know.

Who your people were?

To share who you were with them. to heal them. To get them to walk again and see but ultimately to be reconciled back to their Heavenly Father.

And when you left you gave this mission to your church.

The church is not a building. The church is a group of people that continue to share your good news.

Holy Spirit, please come

give us faces and names of people that we need to share your good news with.

Even to the point that it would be disobedient. If we didn't do something about it. God they may reject us, but they also rejected you. But you kept going.

You kept sharing. And you have never stopped. Because it is your desire to see everybody reconciled back to you to be in relationship with you. You were fine without us.

So you created us and even when we went against you you sent your son.

Cuz you want to invite us into this relationship. That gives us joy.

That gives us purpose.

Break our hearts for what breaks yours?

break our hearts For what breaks yours?

In the name of Jesus we pray amen.