It is a universal problem that doesn't seem to escape any of us. I wish I could say, "It hasn't been my problem." It's the problem of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness seems to be no respecter of persons. It can have that buttoneddown, theological, conservative arrogance, "I know more than you know; and if you were as theological as I am, you would be a spiritual as I am." It may take the form of looking down on someone who doesn't appear to be as spiritually mature as you are. It could take the form of a parent who says something like this to your child: "I can't believe that you would do such a thing!
Your Problem Is You're Not as Righteous as I Am
Why, in my day, I would've never thought of doing such a thing." (Essentially what you're saying to your child is, "Your problem is you're not nearly as righteous as I am.") It could take the form of mocking a sinner. Maybe that takes the form of a rather sick homophobic joke that you can tell, and it doesn't bother you. Self-righteousness is no respecter of persons. Hear these words from that great Anglican preacher, JC Ryle: Oh, let us beware of self-righteousness. Open sin kills thousands of souls.
Selfrighteousness kills its tens of thousands. Go and study humility with the great apostle of the Gentiles. Go and sit with Paul at the foot of the cross. Give up your secret pride. Cast away your vain ideas of your own goodness. Be thankful if you have any grace, but never glory in it for a moment. Work for God and Christ with heart and soul and mind and strength, but never dream for a second of placing confidence in any work of your own. I would ask you this evening as you begin to turn in your 'Order of Worship' to that passage in Mark 2, this question: Who do you think you are?
And how does your view of yourself affect the way you think about your need of God and His grace? And how does the way you think about yourself shape the way you think about and respond to the others who are around you? You are, whether you realize it or not, in a constant, daily habit of self-assessment, selfevaluation. You are always examining yourself. You're always evaluating yourself; that's part of that incessant internal conversation that we've talked about before. And there's a way that that's not a bad thing, blessed by God's grace that can lead you in good places to confession and repentance.
But it can be a dangerous thing because we are all too skilled at giving ourselves arguments for our righteousness. We're all too skilled in being able to recast our wrong in a way that's acceptable to our conscience. We're all too skilled at comparing ourselves to other people and assessing ourselves as somehow, some way, having arrived. We're all too comfortable in maybe quiet, but deadly condemnation of people out there who seem to be so messed up. And so I think this passage, that beautifully depicts for us God's grace and importantly puts in our face this struggle of self-righteousness, is very, very helpful for us.
Let me read again, if you would follow, this passage from Mark 2:13 through 17: He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him. And as he reclined at the table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (ESV) Now we find ourselves again in this section of Mark where there are these series of controversy narratives. Mark is presenting Jesus and His message as being one that you cannot be neutral toward. Jesus has made outrageous self-claims, and either He is the Son of God who is the Messiah and He has the power to forgive sin, or He's a horrible blasphemer.
Checking Jesus Out
And so the scribes and Pharisees begin to follow Christ; they're checking Him out, and they're eventually going to try to entrap Him, and this pattern will lead to His trial and ultimately His death. And we see a familiar sort of narrative pattern in this passage. Jesus, again, is withdrawing from the crowd, trying to get away a bit along the shores of The Galilee, but as always happens, the crowd finds Him. The word is out that there's this tremendous miracle worker named Jesus of Nazareth, and the word is out that He teaches like no one else teaches, and He's done things that people have never seen anyone do before, and so the crowd presses in on Him.
And when the crowd gathers, Jesus does the thing that is His zeal to do - He preaches again the Gospel of the Kingdom. Now, that's the scene. As Jesus is walking along The Galilee, He encounters Levi. Levi's a tax collector; he's there in his booth; he's probably there to collect an exorbitant tax from these commercial fishermen that are along The Galilee. Now, you've got to hear this. These tax collectors are bad dudes; they're bad guys. They were despised people. If lepers were despised for their disease, these people are despised all the more.
Maybe you could say it this way: people feared those diseased ones because of their infectious disease, but they hated the tax collectors. These guys were Hebrews who worked for the Roman government, and they meted out this exorbitant tax that essentially broke the back of the Palestinian economy, and they took a good portion for themselves. They were political turncoats; they were thieves; they were known for their lawlessness and immorality. As a group of people, tax collectors had been excommunicated from the synagogue.
They were so known to be corrupt, they were not allowed to participate in any of the work of the court. Now I would propose to you that there are few of us, if we were going to choose twelve men whom we were going to employ to bring the Gospel to the world, I think there are few of us who would've had Levi on our short list. And I think that says something. There's something very powerful about this moment when Christ looks at this despicable, immoral man who literally stands for everything that's opposite of what Jesus came to do and produce, and Jesus looks at this man, and He actually sees potential.
Now, don't get concerned about what I'm saying here. He doesn't see potential innate in this man, because you would argue this man has no potential whatsoever. What Jesus sees is the radical, transforming, life-altering, God-glorifying, potential of grace. You need no more argument in all of Scripture for the power and importance of grace than the calling of Levi. And I think if I could speak for you, and I'm going to do that, the reason we are surprised at the calling of people like Levi is because we mistakenly think we're different.
We mistakenly think, somehow, we would be better than him. And everyone here is capable of everything that this man gave himself apart from the rescuing, transforming operation of grace. Our hope is one thing - it's grace; it's grace; it's grace. And we bring nothing to the moment but deep abiding personal need. It's the heart of the Gospel. And the minute you think you're greater, you're in trouble! I'm afraid that as we grow in knowledge and we grow in ministry and we grow in Biblical literacy, I'm afraid that something dangerous happens.
We get greater and our celebration of Christ gets lesser; what a horrible thing to have happen! We get more excited about us; and by the very nature of that, we're less excited about grace. Hear this, if you would live on earth for another ten-thousand years, and you would continue to follow Christ, you would need His grace that next day as much as you needed it the first day that you believed. We are Levi! And it's shocking that God would've called any of us; it's shocking! It's a shocking miracle of grace.
Singing Hymns Forever
And, oh, we may struggle to get that now, but brothers and sisters, I believe there's a day in eternity when we'll get it, and we will have no problem singing hymns forever. It won't bore us. We'll say, "Can we sing that one again? How about "Amazing Grace" for the seventh-millionth time?" But hear this: we're not there yet. And be aware; be aware; be aware! It's very easy for us to walk by certain people and to say, "I thank God that I'm not like that man." There's another argument for grace in this moment.
It's mind blowing when you think about it, that when Jesus said, "Follow me," (Are you ready for this?) he did! He did! This is a man whose very lifestyle gave you no hint that he would have spiritual interest whatsoever. This Jesus is about to call Levi away from everything that has excited him in life. You would expect this man would say, "Yeah, right! Like I'm going to follow you, oh, Messiah!" But he follows. You know why? Grace! Grace gives this man the ability to respond in this moment. Grace opens his eyes.
Grace moves his heart. Grace changes his thinking. Grace changes his desires, and this man runs after Jesus! What an amazing thing! Nobody would ever be in this room; nobody here in this room would ever choose to spend a Sunday evening this way if it weren't for one thing and one thing alone: grace! It is our story! And it's not that you're smart, and it's not that your holy, and it's not that you have the right desires, and it's not that you're theological. All that stuff is baloney. You have been rescued from you by divine grace!
Praise God! And I have to say this: it's only grace that would ever cause a man like me to be able to do what I'm now doing in this moment. You want to know amazing grace? I get to do this for a living. I have this experience when I'm, when I'm on weekends. Somebody will come to me, and they will say, "You know, Paul, it's really amazing that you and your brother, Tedd, are both in ministry, and God's given you a lot influence out there. You must have had the most amazing mom and dad ever." Now, I sort of get that conclusion, but it also upsets me.
Because the honest truth of my home is that although I was early exposed to the Gospel, my dad lived an incredible double life, and my mom, in many ways, dear sweet believer, was a troubled lady. I did not live in a noble home. And when people say that to me, what I want to say is, "Don't you believe in grace? That's the explanation." If you would have looked at me, if you would have looked what's inside of me, if you would have looked where I was going, you would've never thought that this young man would end up in Gospel ministry.
You wouldn't have thought that. I've been rescued by grace! And I've been called by grace, and everything I do is dependent on grace. It's God's gift; it's God's truth. It's grace. And I have nothing to boast in. There's no reason to think that I'm special. It's grace! That's our message; that's our hope, and what a beautiful picture of the operation of that grace as God looks at this man and says, "This man, by grace, can be usable to me." And grace yanks this man out of his booth and after Jesus.
Reclining at Table With Sinners
That itself would be enough of a sermon, but I'm not done because what happens next is important. Let me read for you: And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to the disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (ESV) Maybe what you have here is a picture of how much there's been transformation in Levi. What does Levi do? He brings Christ home. I mean, in Levi's normal evening, Jesus would have been a party killer. You wouldn't want Jesus there. The fact that he wants Jesus with him is an amazing thing, and it's clear he wants to celebrate his new found Messiah, and he wants to introduce Jesus to his friends. And who are his friends? Well, bad company. Those are the people he hung out with; these are people like Levi.
And I don't know if it shocks you or not; Jesus is quite comfortable here. These are the people that He came for. You don't see Jesus saying, "You know, Levi, the invitation is nice, but I've got a reputation to protect. You don't really expect that I'm going to hang out with 'those' people do you?" There's none of that. Jesus is quite willing to be with these people. Before Him is the need that brought Jesus to earth and it will drive him to the cross. Well, in the room are the scribes; these are these religious lawyer guys; these are the theologians, and they see Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners.
And I want to say something about that term 'sinners.' It was used with both social and spiritual connotations. That term 'sinner' sort of meant 'low class, outsider, despised.' It also had the spiritual connotations that you're familiar with. And they asked this amazing question, "Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?" This has to be one of the most arrogant questions ever asked. Because the only way that you can ask that question, "Why does He eat with sinners?" is if you have concluded that you're not one.
Because you would never say that if you would say to yourself, "Yes, maybe I haven't done all that these people have done, but I surely have nothing to bring before God that would achieve acceptance with Him." In fact, you could argue even further that these guys, these religious leaders, should be saying, "What a wonderful thing! This is what the Messiah was called to do. He was going to be the light of the world. He's there to give sight to blind eyes. He's there to raise the dead to life. What a beautiful, beautiful thing that He would seek and save people such as these!
This is the Messiah! This has to be the Messiah!" That's not the response. That's not the response. "How dare He eat with people like this?" On a Sunday night, who would make you uncomfortable if they walked in the back door and plopped down next to you in the pew? Be honest. What class of person would you rather not see saved and come to Tenth Church? Important questions for us to consider. He eats with sinners. Now think about this, if Jesus didn't eat with sinners, He would be eating alone because there are only, in this moment, two kinds of people in the house--Jesus and sinners.
That is the irrationality of self-righteousness. It's shocking, utter blindness that these men could actually say this. And think about this, when you think of sinners, there are probably only three classes of sinners: There are those who are sinners, but don't have sin as a category; they are utterly blind to their sin. And we want to move out into our world; we want to be instruments of seeing for them so that, through us, through the message of the Gospel, through looking in the mirror of the Word of God, these people would come to a knowledge of their sin because of that hunger for Christ and want to hear the message of His life, death, and resurrection.
Two Classes of Sinners
The second class of sinners are self-righteous, arrogant, denying-of-need sinners; they are sinners, but they refuse to recognize their sin. And listen, self-righteousness is a premier enemy of the work of God. Self-righteousness will crush your seeking and your celebration of grace because grace is only ever exciting to a sinner. If you don't think you're a sinner, you are not at all excited about the message of the cross of Jesus Christ that He would come; He would live a perfect life for you; He would bear your sin on the cross; He would purchase your acceptance; He would rise, conquering death, and give you life.
If you don't think you are a sinner, that's not even interesting to you. Hear this: self-righteousness also crushes ministry because you don't tend to be excited about ministering to people who suddenly you despise. No one gives grace better than a person who is deeply persuaded that he needs it himself. A sense of personal need, in a very healthy way, propels ministry. Then Jesus says these words: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
When you're feeling quite healthy, you don't say to a person who's a friend or who is living with you, "You know, I really think I ought to see the doctor; I'm feeling so good." It's an almost humorous example. Jesus is saying, "My message is a message of hope to sinners. I came to call sinners." And so, Jesus, in this moment, is giving us a picture of the zeal of His ministry. He sits with the despised, and the rejected, and the seemingly spiritual hopeless because that's exactly what He came to do, and He's there because He understands He is their only hope, and He will not just number himself with sinners in His life; He will number Himself with sinners in His death.
He will hang as a criminal next to criminals, taking our sin upon Him so that we would be forgiven, and we would have life apart from anything we could ever do to achieve it ourselves. As the hymn says, "Not the righteous, not the righteous, sinners Jesus came to call." God help us to have a Biblically accurate view of ourselves. Not a view of ourselves that causes us to beat ourselves up; because if your beating yourself up because you're not worthy, you're still holding onto self-righteousness; you still want to be independently righteous.
May God fill us with a profound sense of need that runs us to the cross--there to find forgiveness and there to worship the Redeemer whose grace is our hope. Let's Pray: Lord, we would confess our utter need of Your grace--that we have nothing in ourselves that could achieve acceptance with You, and we have no ability to move toward You, and no ability to live in a way that would please You. Our only hope is Your grace. And yet having said that, we would confess also that self-righteousness is still a clear and present danger.
We don't think that we're bad company; we think that we would be good company for You. We pray that You would rescue us from that selfrighteousness that crushes a seeking and celebration of grace and crushes Gospel ministry. And may, in the harmony of mourning and celebration, may we run to the cross again, and again, and again, and find the grace there to meet us in our time of need. In Jesus's name, Amen.
