Key Truth: Luke
wrote Luke 5:27-39 to teach believers that Jesus calls us to the joy of
commitment to Christ and in the expectation found in Christ.
Key Application: Today I
want to show you what God’s Word says about the joy found in Christ.
Pray and Read:
Luke 5:27-39
Sermon Points:
1. Jesus
calls us to the joy of commitment (Luke 5:27-32)
2. Jesus
calls us to the joy of expectancy (Luke 5:33-39)
Context:
Luke
introduces his Gospel with a call to believe that Jesus is the Messiah who
fulfills the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants (Luke 1-2). Repenting of sin is
the first step in believing (Luke 3:1-20) in this Jesus who is set apart as
God’s suffering Servant through his sacrificial death (Luke 3:21-23a). Unlike
sinful Adam, Jesus is the completely obedient Son of God (Luke 3:23b-38) who defeats
Satan himself in a test of every sphere of human life: body, mind, and spirit
(Luke 4:1-13).
In
the power of the Holy Spirit, then, Jesus moves into his ministry in the region
of the Sea of Galilee (Luke 4:14-9:50). After encountering unbelief and
rejection at Nazareth (Luke 4:14-30),[1]
Jesus finds belief, freedom, and healing for the captives in Capernaum (Luke
4:31-44). After calling his first disciples in belief to follow him (Luke
5:1-11), his ministry arouses the unbelieving hostility of the religious
leaders when he announces forgiveness for sins (Luke 5:12-26). After Levi the
tax collector responds in belief to follow Him (Luke 5:27-32), the Pharisees
respond in unbelief to Jesus’ dining with sinners (Luke 5:33-39).
Exposition: Note
well,
1.
JESUS CALLS US TO THE JOY OF
COMMITMENT (Luke 5:27-32)
a. (|| Mark 2:13-17): Luke 5:27-29 – The calling of Levi
plays out a central theme in Luke’s Gospel: Sinners who repent and in belief,
follow him. Jesus calls Levi, with a name that points to the Levites whose job
was to do the work connected with the Temple service – not betray Israel by
collecting taxes for the oppressive Roman government! Most people saw them tax
collectors as nothing more than collaborators for the Romans, stealing from the
local economy to enrich the armies that kept them under oppression. Jesus calls
him, and he responds with belief. Levi apparently sat in a toll booth, where
customs would be collected on goods in transit. He was probably agent for a
chief tax collector, as Zaccheus was. Customs officials were employed in King
Herod’s civil service. They made good wages and were not likely to get their
jobs back once they left them, especially on such short notice. Jesus call to
Levi was a great honor, especially to one whose work would have excluded him
from religious circles.
b. Jesus, having called Levi (viz.,
Matthew, Matt 9:9) to be a disciple, accepted an invitation for a banquet that
Levi gave for his former colleagues. Levi must have been financially successful
to afford a great banquet. That Levi should respond to Jesus’ invitation with a
banquet is not surprising since repaying honor with honor was an important part
of social life in the ancient world. He wants to introduce his friends and
former colleagues to Jesus. Table fellowship indicated intimate relationships
among those sharing it, and it was natural for a well-to-do person to invite
his colleagues and employees to a feast.
c. APPLICATION: Levi immediately opened his home
for evangelism, for them to meet Jesus. Are you opening your life to those in
your circle of influence so that they can meet Jesus?
d.
Luke 5:30 – Why eat with sinners and tax collectors? This passage has a series
of accusations from the Pharisees about Jesus’ and his disciples’ lifestyle
with Jesus’ responses. The first is that they associate with the wrong kind of
people (Luke 5:30). They should not eat and drink with social outcasts. The
Pharisees had special rules about eating and did not like to eat with less
scrupulous people like tax gatherers and sinners, or even common Israelites.
Why? He could not be sure the food was ceremonially clean or if it had been
properly tithed.[2]
Notice that the Pharisees did not attack Jesus and his followers behavior (they
did not get drunk), but only with whom they associated. The use of “were
complaining” (egongyzon) is
significant because in the LXX it is used to describe the murmuring of Israel
in the Wilderness (Exod. 15:24; 16:7-12; 17:3; Num 11:1; 14:2, 27-29, 36;
16:11, 14; 17:5, 10) and of Israel’s rebellion against God (Psalm 59:15;
106:25; 1 Cor 10:10). The point? In opposing the faithful Son of God, the
Pharisees and scribes are following the rebellious ways of their ancestors
(Luke 15:2; 19:7).
e.
Jesus
responds that as a doctor sought out the sick, so his place was with the
sinners he had come to save. He as host, in a prophetic picture of the Great
Marriage Supper of the Lamb, invites sinners to eat with him (Luke 5:31-32). The
righteous, i.e., the self-righteous do not need a doctor (or don’t think they
do anyway). Sinners who recognize their desperate need of repentance and
spiritual healing are the people Jesus wants.[3]
f.
APPLICATION: Many Christians have been criticized
for the very thing Jesus was attacked for: associating with the wrong kind of
people. The problem is that while we are to separate from evil, we are also to
call sinners to repentance. Jesus’ way of doing this was not to shout at
sinners from a distance, but spend time with them. Because we cannot tell what
another person’s motives are, we must not criticize fellow believers just for
associating with them.
2.
JESUS CALLS US TO THE JOY OF
EXPECTANCY (Luke 5:33-39)
a.
(||
Mark 2:18-22; Matt. 9:14-17) Luke 5:33-34 - The second accusation is provoked
by the first one about banqueting with sinners. It is that the disciples’
lifestyle is not serious enough. There is too much eating and drinking and not
enough fasting and praying (Luke 5:33). The OT commanded many more feast than
fasts, but the Pharisees fasted twice a week, for example, Mondays and
Thursdays. Fasting in the OT is associated with spiritual preparation and
repentance, never as a means to self-righteousness. Fasting has its place,
Jesus answers, but fasting while proclaiming good news makes no more sense than
fasting at a wedding feast (Judg. 14:17) when the bridegroom was present. It
was unthinkable.[4]
The marks of Jesus’ followers will not be exclusivist rules and avoiding
outcasts, but will be joy like a wedding – in fact, Jesus a joyous wedding
banquet for his people (the time of salvation) where he himself is the
bridegroom (Isaiah 54:5-8; 62:4-5; Jer 2:2; Ezek 16; Hosea 2:18, 21; 2 Cor
11:2; Eph 5:25-27; Rev 19:7-10; 21:2).
b.
If
you are thinking about the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, you’re probably not far
off where Jesus was headed with this parable. The bridegroom will be taken away
one day, and fasting will be appropriate (Luke 5:35). Here Jesus foreshadows
his rejection and departure (Luke 9:31, 51) and the sorrow it will cause his
followers.
c.
Apostle
Paul: “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of
righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17).
d.
Luke 5:36-38 - Luke, Matthew, and Mark follow this
wedding imagery with two short parables, and Luke adds a third. They are meant
to elaborate the significance of his coming: first, the old patch on a new
garment (which will damage the new garment by shrinking and pulling away from
the old patch and also not match the faded colors of the old one, Luke 5:36). The
second is about wineskins, animal skins whose hair was scraped and then sewn
together to contain liquids. The process of fermentation forces the expansion
of the skins. New wine is not put into old wineskins, for they are brittle and
would burst and lose what is valued. Rather new wine is stored in new wineskins
(Luke 5:37-39). New spiritual realities demand a new lifestyle.
e.
Luke 5:39 - Luke adds a third parable: no one
after drinking old wine wants new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’
Distillation had not yet been developed, so wine could only achieve a certain
level of alcoholic content, and it was always consumed with meals watered-down.
The alcoholic content was necessary as an antiseptic in the water. This third
analogy is about the resilience of the traditions and exclusiveness of Judaism
to oppose the advance of the new gospel of the Kingdom which includes all the
nations of the earth.
f.
The
point of all three is the inevitable clash between old Jewish expectations and
the new thing God is doing in Jesus. Jesus is not reforming Judaism. He is
bringing the dawn of God’s final salvation, and it will be for all nations.
This new wineskin must expand to include all the nations with Israel in
celebration of the King of Kings.
g.
APPLICATION: As we let the Gospel message
infuse our lives, it gives us a fresh, new shape, chosen by God’s Spirit, in
which the new wine of God’s work within us matures toward beauty and holiness.[5]
Jesus must be accepted on His own terms. He is a transformer, not a reformer.
He doesn’t come to your life simply to help you live better. He comes to
revolutionize it. He does not come to you to be a part of your life. He comes
to be your life (Col 3:4). He does not come to augment your ego and strengthen
your self-esteem. He comes to crucify your sinful self and teach you replace it
with His Christ Life. He is not interested in entertaining you. He comes to
take over. He comes to lead. He comes to rule. He comes to reign. In surrender
to Him lies true joy.
Invitation:
[1] The incident parallels the beginning
of the birth narrative, in which the priest Zechariah responds in unbelief to
the announcement of the angel Gabriel. The Capernaum synagogue’s faith
parallels the believing faith of the Virgin Mary.
[2] Dining at the home of a Pharisee
meant you even had to take off your clothes and put on his ritually clean
garments to eat with him.
[3] This passage is parallel to the
Zaccheus story at the end of Jesus’ ministry where Jesus says, “The Son of Man
came to seek and save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).
[4] Fasting in the OT was done in
crisis (Judg. 20:26; 2 Sam 12:16-23; 1 Kings 21:27; 2 Chron 20:3; Ezra 8:21-23;
Neh 1:4; Esther 4:3, 16; Psalm 35:13; 69:10; 109:24) or in repentance (1 Sam
7:6; Joel 1:14) or in mourning (1 Sam 31:13; 2 Sam 1:12; 1 Chon 10:12).
[5] Larry Richards, Expository Dictionary of Bible Words
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985), 458.
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