Follow Me (Luke 5:27-39)

“Follow Me”
Luke 5:27-32

INTRODUCTION:
About 60% of the human body is water. We lose water simply by breathing. We lose water by sweating. We lose water when we use the bathroom. We are constantly losing water.

That’s why health professionals tell us that the average man needs to drink 13 cups of water a day; the average woman needs to drink 9 cups of water a day. That’s 3 liters of water a day for men; 2 liters of water day for women! That’s a lot of water!

If you don’t take in that much fluids, you could be dehydrated. Let’s say you only drink 1 cup o water a day - 8 ounces. That would be 56 ounces of water a week, when you should have drank as much as 700 ounces a week!

When we talk about following Jesus, being a disciple of Christ, we are not talking about worshipping Jesus for 1 hour each week. Being a disciple of Christ includes worshipping Him, but it is so much more. And studying the word of God on a daily basis is a part of that discipleship too. Jesus designed us to feed on His word regularly; remember He said, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

If you do not read the Bible during the week, the 30 minutes of Bible you get from a Sunday morning sermon is not going to be enough to sustain your spirit. No wonder many Christians leave worship feeling like their spirits have not be uplifted. It’s because you came to worship already “dehydrated” and 8 ounces of water is not enough to sustain you.

Following Jesus is a daily decision that also includes daily choices.

We want to look at one example of a disciple of Jesus, whom Jesus will make into an apostle and this man illustrates to us what it means to become a disciple of Christ.

LEVI BECOMES A FOLLOWER - Luke 5:27-28:
We saw last month from the preaching of John the baptizer, recorded in Luke 3, that many tax collectors came to John to be baptized by him. They asked John what “fruit worthy of repentance” they needed to do and John told them: “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to” (3:13). Tax collectors could bid on the job from the Roman government and the government allowed them considerable freedom to collect what they desired.

Because of that, tax collectors often collected quite a bit more than was necessary and they usually were very wealthy. And, they were also quite hated by the Jews as you and I can imagine. That’s why they are often associated with sinners: “tax collectors and sinners” is a phrase used 7 times in the NT.

It might very well be that Levi here was in that crowd of tax collectors who listened to John preaching and repented of his greediness. Luke refers to him as “Levi,” a name which makes us - the reader - recall that priests under the Law of Moses came from the family of Levi. That might have made this man even more despised by his fellow Jews because he went to work for the Roman government rather than helping in the temple, if he was from the tribe of Levi.

Jesus is in the area of Capernaum, in the area of Capernaum, and he is walking on the road and came across a booth for collecting taxes and there was this man sitting there, collecting taxes. “Levi.” And Jesus says, “Follow Me.” Notice in verse 28 that the text says Levi “left everything” and got up and followed Jesus. That verb “to leave” carries the idea of “abandoning everything.” Levi decided that he was going to do more than be an honest tax collector. He was going to stop being an honest tax collector and he was going to be a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.

That is going to have some serious repercussions for both him and you and me…

LEVI BECOMES AN EVANGLELIST - 5:29-32:
The first thing Levi does, according to Luke’s account, is to throw a huge reception - a fantastic dinner - with Jesus as the honored guest in his house. But this party is not just for Levi. He invites a “great crowd” of tax collectors and many other people to join him. He is introducing his friends and family and neighbors to meet Jesus. In Matthew’s account (9:10), Matthew tells us there were “sinners” in this crowd!

Levi knows Jesus Christ and he wants people he loves to get to know Jesus Christ.

Apparently, however, at some point along the line, there are also Pharisees in the crowd. Whether they just wandered in, are standing outside the fence (with the party happening in the courtyard), or what, they are there. The Pharisees were the religious leaders, but they were hypocrites and self-righteous. The “scribes” were men who copied down the Law (by hand) to make new copies of it, so they knew the law and they taught the law. Most scribes were Pharisees. We don’t know if Levi invited these people or not.

But, the Pharisees did not like the idea that Jesus was eating with “tax collectors and sinners!” You see, they were so concerned about keeping themselves clean and pure in the eyes of God that they were not willing to spend time with people who really did need both God’s love and God’s truth. The Pharisees would stay away from those kind of people.

But, Jesus knew what they were saying and how they were feeling, so, He stated that healthy people don’t need a physician. The Pharisees thought - of course wrongly - that they were spiritually “healthy” people. It is those who are sick who need the doctor. Again, for Jesus to identify Himself with the “Healer of Israel” here identifies Him with the Jehovah God of the OT (see Exodus 15:26).

So Jesus points out in verse 32 that He did not come to call the righteous - people who were already in a right relationship with God (which, of course, includes no one!) - but the sinners “to repentance.” “Repentance” means to change your mind and then change your behavior. How could Jesus talk with tax collectors and sinners about changing their mind and their behavior if He did not associate with them?

Of course, Jesus was not eating with them just to spend time with them and make them feel good about themselves. He was spending time with them so that He could call them to repent of their sins so they could be in the coming Kingdom of the Messiah.

But Jesus would not have had that opportunity if he had not been invited by Levi. Levi was an evangelist, even if he did not know everything that he needed to know.

LEVI BECOMES A METAPHOR - 5:33-39:
Apparently this paragraph happens at the same time as the previous events - in the house of Levi…

The Pharisees and their scribes say to Jesus: “the disciples of John fast often and pray and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but your disciples eat and drink…” There were a few times in the OT when the Jews fasted on an annual basis - like on the Day of Atonement or when the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. By the time we get to the NT times, the Pharisees were fasting twice every week! (Luke 18:12). And this wasn’t a personal matter with them; they taught everybody needed to fast just like they did!

But Jesus responds to that in a few different ways…

1) First, Jesus said that attendants of the bridegroom do not fast as long as the bridegroom is with them. Once again, Jesus is putting Himself in the place of Jehovah God in the OT. In the OT, it was God who was the “husband of Israel;” in the NT, it is Jesus Christ. At a point in the near future, Jesus says (ver. 35), the bridegroom would be taken from them and then they would fast. Of course, when Jesus was crucified, we do not doubt that the disciples fasted. But when He arose from the dead, their mourning was turned into celebration!

2) Secondly, Jesus told a short parable, making a comparison between some daily events and some spiritual truths. He says that you don’t take a new garment and sew it into an old cloth. When the new cloth shrinks, it will tear both the old and the new. Plus, the two will not match.

3) Thirdly, Jesus says that you don’t put new wine into old wineskins. During the fermentation process, gas is given off and it expands the wineskins (which were animal skins, often taken from the neck and then sewn into containers). If you do that enough times, the skin will expand as far as it can. Plus, when it is old, it will lose its elasticity. If you put new wine into old skins, that gas will put pressure on the old skins and they will burst. Instead, you put new wine into new wine skins.

Now, what Jesus is saying is that His disciples would not and should not put the new Covenant, the new teachings of Jesus Christ, into the OT forms - the Law of Moses. There would not really be a place for fasting under the Law of Christ. Jesus will tell us that He is with us always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20). You don’t force a square peg into a round hole and the “square peg” is the NT and the “round hole” is the OT and the Law of Moses. That’s a lesson for all of us who want to try to justify some behavior from the OT and force it into the church of Christ. You are putting new wine into old wine skins.

Keep in mind that Levi carries the name of the tribe of priests from the OT. Could it be that God wants us to see Levi as being a metaphor for leaving the tribe of Levi behind and that priesthood as we move into the new covenant of Jesus Christ? Levi has another name, you see, Matthew, which is he know as even in Luke. In Luke 6:15, he is identified as “Matthew.” Once he becomes a follower of Christ, he leaves the “Levi” behind - the OT forms - and he takes on a new identity, a follower of Christ, which is symbolized by him using a new name: Matthew. And, being led by the Spirit of God, Matthew writes for us the Gospel according to Matthew so that he can continue introducing the world to His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

LEVI IS AN EXAMPLE - Luke 14:25-33:
So Levi became a disciple of Christ, a “follower” of Jesus. He left his job and his old religion and he followed Jesus with his heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Early church history - for what it is worth - says that Matthew evangelized in northern Africa, specifically in Ethiopia where he was killed for preaching the Gospel around AD 65.

Do you think Matthew just served Jesus one day a week? Do you think Matthew just read his Bible one day a week? Do you think Matthew just worshipped Jesus one day a week? Certainly not. He was a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ from the time he left everything until the world left him.

Levi is an example of the dedication and commitment that Jesus actually demands from all of us. Let’s conclude by reading Luke 14:25-33…

Take home message: Follow Jesus with everything you are, every where you are, with all that you are.