Yes, I'm so excited for you to meet the five brothers who are the pastors of Grace Bible Fellowship. They're in Punjab, and as you leave, you will be given one of their Pastor cards on your way out, so that you can know who they are. See their prayer requests, pray for them. So, like you saw Min Han there, who's part of our church, he went there and made that video. Min and I, we get on Zoom every Wednesday night here in Huntington Beach. It's already Thursday morning there in India. And so, I have gotten to know these five brothers, and we are truly partnered with them, because people here have given money. They are moving to the ground floor there in India. And so, let's take a moment to praise the Lord. This is a part of Project Pay It Forward that we're doing, as we have more than what we need here in Huntington Beach. We are committed to sending that to help other churches, including this church. And so, when you get one of these cards, put that pastor somewhere you will regularly see them to pray for them. For example, Pastor Fevin, who loves Scripture of the Day, he was sharing that with us. He recently had a prayer meeting in his house, and they said to him, yeah, you can't do stuff like that here. Oh, you can't have prayer meetings here. He's like, but I'm a pastor, I'm going to need to get together with people and pray and have them over. And they're like, oh, we can't have any of the Hallelujah people here. You're going to have to move. And they gave him one month to move out of his house. So, this is the kind of stuff that those brothers are regularly experiencing as they're seeking to share the gospel there in Punjab, India. So, I really hope that you will continue to give so we can support them, and continue to pray for them, because it's a blessing to partner with these men.
And I want to ask you a question as we open up our Bibles to the Gospel of Mark together, why did Jesus select the twelve men that he chose to be his disciples? So, grab your Bible and turn with me to Mark 2:13-17. That's going to be our text together today, and we're going to see Jesus call another one of his disciples. And it's a question, maybe you've wondered, why these twelve guys? Why did Jesus select them specifically? It's something I think about because we want to make disciples. Here at our church, the elders, the deacons, we want to invest our lives into other people, pass on what Jesus has taught us, give it to other people, make them disciples. That's why people are getting baptized. We make disciples and then we baptize those who become disciples in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, what was Jesus looking for when he chose his twelve disciples? What should we be looking for if we're going to either be a disciple or even go on a mission to make disciples? What is this thing that Jesus sees about them? And it may not be what you think. So, I want to invite everyone to stand up for the public reading of Scripture. And I'm going to read Mark 2:13-17. Please follow along with me as I read, because this is the Word of God.
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 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.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, grab your seat. There is a handout there in your bulletin if you want to take some notes through these verses with us. And the first thing I want you to circle, if you're taking notes, is that word “again” there in verse 13. Why does Mark say “again”? We're beside the Sea of Galilee. So, the Sea of Galilee is a beautiful place. We have a video of it here from the last time we were there. Some of the best days of my life have been at the Sea of Galilee, either on a boat or hiking in the hills to the north of the Sea of Galilee. And so, it says again, Mark is taking us to that place. Well, next to that word “again,” you want to put down chapter 1, verse 16, because that's when we got, kind of for the first time, brought to be by this beautiful lake there in the northern part of Israel in the Sea of Galilee. And if you go back to chapter 1, verse 16, you'll see it was when he was passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, that he called Simon, who we know as Peter and Andrew, his brother, and then James and John. That was the last account we got, where he said to them, “Follow me.” And they left their nets. They left their father, Zebedee, in the boat, and they followed Jesus. Jesus said, I will make you to become fishers of men.
And so, we saw Jesus call four of his disciples. So, when we go again to the Sea of Galilee, even though this time, you may not think of it as something associated with the sea, like fishing. This is tax collecting. Why are we going back to the Sea of Galilee? Well, Jesus is getting ready to call another disciple. So go back now to chapter 2, and he's taken us back “again” because he wants to continue this theme of Jesus calling his twelve disciples. And it says here in verse 13, “He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.” So that's why we have this picture for our kind of graphic for this sermon here is because this is a common thing that happens. If you read through the gospels, you'll see that Jesus regularly teaches by the sea, because there's kind of a natural amphitheater that goes, if you're down at the water, and then going up onto these hills there in Galilee, the voice just kind of amplifies and it rings out in that little hilly amphitheater. In fact, I got to go just hiking around in these places. And I remember one day we were way up far away from the sea, like a good distance from the sea, and we were up on this hill, and I could hear everything, the people who were playing down in the water, right there on the shore. I could hear everything they were saying clearly. I could drop some serious eves from where I was far away up here on this hill; it was like they were talking to me, and they were way down below in the water. And so, that's what's happening here is Jesus, he's very popular at this time. Even though we're only in chapter 2 of Mark, his popularity has escalated quickly, massive crowds. But if he goes down by the water and they're there on the hills, his voice just amplifies up to them, and many people can hear him.
But the point here isn't what Jesus was saying to the many people. The point is, after teaching many, he chose one. He selected this one guy. And it's not who you would think, the guy that Jesus was looking for. This guy, it says in the next verse, verse 14, Levi, the son of Alphaeus. Where is Levi sitting? He's sitting at the tax booth. He is a tax collector. And that's who Jesus is going to say, “Follow me” is a tax collector. See, in the excitement, apparently, Levi has Jesus and the disciples over to his house where there's a whole bunch of tax collectors. And you can see right there in verse 15, it says, “As he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors.” And how do they describe these tax collectors, everybody? Sinners, sinners.
Tax Collector is going to become the poster person for people who are evil in the gospel. So, wait, wait, why is Jesus choosing a known sinner to be one of his disciples? In fact, if you look at verse 15, you’ve got “sinners” there. Look at verse 16, you got two examples of the word “sinners” there, and then in verse 17, the last word of the text is who Jesus came to call was “sinners”. So, if you're taking notes, circle all four of those words for “sinners”. So, as soon as we see it, oh, wait, he works at the tax booth. Wait, he's hanging out with tax collectors. Those people are sinners. And so that's the point. Jesus is calling a man who is a sinner.
Now, let me just clarify some confusion. It calls him Levi, the son of Alphaeus, here in Mark 2:14, but in Matthew, chapter 9, verse 9, it tells the same account, it seems, of Jesus calling a tax collector. But in the Gospel of Matthew, he goes by the name of Matthew. And so, we think that the Levi here and the Matthew who wrote the Gospel of Matthew is actually the same person. And if you go over to chapter 3, verse 16, where it names out the twelve disciples here in Mark, you won't see Levi as one of the names, but you will see Matthew. So, it's interesting. It calls him Levi, but we think it is Matthew from the Gospel of Matthew. And it's interesting because it says Levi, the son of Alphaeus. But then here in Mark 3, when you go through, we've got Simon, who becomes Peter. We've got James and John, known as the Sons of Thunder. We've got Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas. And then notice it says James the son of Alphaeus. So that's interesting because he was Levi, the son of Alphaeus. So, if Levi's really Matthew, are Matthew and James brothers, or are there two different dads named Alpheus? There are some questions here. We're not really sure. But when Jesus calls this tax collector, we think that he's Matthew. We think he's one of the twelve. We think he writes one of the four gospels. If you've ever read the book of Matthew, if you've ever memorized a verse from Matthew, ever been blessed by the reading of Matthew or a preaching of the Word from Matthew, well, that's because Jesus called this tax collector right here by the Sea of Galilee, and he said, “Follow me.” And this guy left being a tax collector to follow Jesus and ended up writing a book that has impacted many of our lives.
But that can't be why would Jesus call that man? Because that man is most assuredly a sinner. So, we’ve got to understand the cultural context of this idea of being a tax collector, because tax collectors were the poster people for sinners. And I'm not just talking about the way that you feel about the IRS. This goes a lot deeper than that. Okay? This is more than just the normal human grumbling about paying taxes, okay? We’ve got to really understand this. The tax collectors were taking money from their fellow Jews, and they were giving the money to who, everybody? The Romans. So, we're not just collecting money on behalf of the Israeli government. No, we are being oppressed by the Roman Empire. There is a real tension as the Romans rule over Israel at this time. In fact, in 70 AD, the Romans are going to wipe out the Jews in Israel. So, the tension on the street is very real, and you have now basically betrayed your country. You're now willing to take from your fellow countrymen and to give it to our enemy. It's not just like we're trying to figure out how to govern ourselves. No, you are betraying us by taking our money, like the Roman Empire needs more money. You're giving it to them. So, you would have been seen as a Benedict Arnold. You would have been seen as somebody who was a traitor to the Jewish people. You're a tax collector. You don't even care about your own kinsmen in your country. But see, it was even worse than that, because the Roman government, they would offer up bids of who wanted to collect taxes in certain regions. And so you have to already have some money to even make one of these bids. And then from that bid, you give the Romans what they want, and now they've given you authority to go and take, not just the money you gave to the Romans, you take whatever you can take. And so, this is like you're now deciding your own salary, and you're now deciding how much people should give you. And so, you're just greedy, you're just materialistic. It's not just that you've betrayed your country, you don't even care about your neighbors. You're just using people to get money from them. So, when you hear tax collecting, you're like thinking of the organized crime of Galilee. There are all kinds of extortion, all kinds of exploitation. You’ve got to go back in your mind to like Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham, and how the rich are taken to get richer and keep the poor poor. This is a terrible system of governance. This is like, I'll just beat you up or make you give me whatever I can take from you.
Jesus is calling one of those guys, like he's going over to that guy's house. This is like, imagine the mafia had a hangout. Jesus is going there to get one of his disciples. That's what's going on in people's mind when they hear tax collector. And so, wait a minute. Are you telling me that the number one qualification you need to be a disciple, the number one thing you need on your resume is for it to say your name sinner. That's what you need to be. You need to know that you're a sinner, and when you can see that you're a sinner, now you're ready to follow Jesus. Is that what this text is teaching us that the thing that qualifies you to be a disciple of Jesus is seeing that you have fallen short of the glory of God, you have missed the mark of his commandments, you have transgressed his loss? If you can see that you're a sinner, now you're ready to be a disciple. You have to first see who you really are. Now, maybe, you're thinking, well, maybe that's the case here with this tax collector, that he knows he's a sinner, so he's following Jesus, but I didn't hear that back in Mark 1 with Peter and James and John and the original guys who got called. There was no talk about sin there.
Well, grab your Bible and turn with me to Luke, chapter 5. I need everybody to see this. Go to Luke 5, because this answers a question I regularly hear about Jesus calling his disciples. He goes and says, “Follow me.” They leave everything. They rise up. They follow him. Like people are like, was that just like a miracle? Did Jesus just make them do that? Like, how do you just hear the guy say, “Follow me” and you leave everything to follow him? Well, the truth is they had interacted with Jesus before then, and when he comes to officially call them to follow him, they already had interaction with Jesus. They already knew who he was. It wasn't their first meeting, and Luke 5 gives us the behind the scenes story of when Jesus called Peter and James and John.
And so, I really need everybody to see this. Start with me here in verse 1 of Luke 5. “On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the Word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,” which is the Sea of Galilee. So again, we're going right back to the sea. Picture him speaking. There are so many crowded people around him that they're up on the hill. He's speaking. They can hear him. He saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. So, he, getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he gets into a boat so he's even further way out from the shore, so he can kind of amplify his voice and everyone can hear him. It just happens to be Peter's boat that he gets into. “And he asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep, let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered, ‘Master, we toiled all night and took nothing.’” I mean, here's Peter saying, hey, I kind of know how fishing works. We were out there all night. There was nothing to catch, but at your word, I'll let down the nets. Okay, Jesus, you want to go out there and fish? Okay? “And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking, and they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a what everybody a sinful man, O Lord.’ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching men.’ And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” Oh, so wait a minute before that moment where they leave everything to follow what had already happened? This amazing, supernatural catch of fish. Peter knows from being a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, he's never seen anything like this, sinking two boats full of fish after he'd been out there and caught nothing. Someone's telling the fish what to do. And I think I know who it is who can control the fish of the sea. And when Peter thinks about who Jesus is, he then sees who he is, and he says, Jesus, “Depart from me.” I shouldn't even be around you, because I am a sinner. And instead of Jesus saying, that's right, Peter, you're not worthy of me. You shouldn't even be around me. What does Jesus say to Peter? Now you get it, Peter, that's the number one qualifying thing I'm looking for in a disciple. That's what I need on your resume. You can follow me. I just need you to know that you are a sinner.
Let's get this down for point number one: We need to “See that Jesus came for sinners like you.” We need to see that Jesus came for sinners like you. And if you're offended by me putting you on there, well, let's talk about that. Have you seen that you are a sinner, and that's why you need to follow Jesus and learn his new way to live, because maybe you haven't seen that? That's how it works. And so, maybe if I say you're a sinner, if that's offensive to you, well, I hope you'll stick with me and you'll really think through if you're not a sinner, then what are you? What's your other option? In fact, go back to Mark chapter 2, where we see the other option present itself, because Jesus is over here with the tax collectors, that organized crime ripping everybody off in Galilee, he's over here with sinners. Well, there's a contrast to the sinners, and we see them here in verse 16. They are introduced as the “scribes of the Pharisees,” and when they see that he's eating, he's in the house, he's sitting down, he's reclining with the tax collectors, the sinners, “they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with the tax collectors and sinners?’” Now that's not like a question. Will you help explain to us the thinking of the ministry of Jesus? They don't care about that. This is a question that’s a dig. This question is basically, oh, you're going with those people over there, the tax collectors. Yeah, we don't go with those people. We're over here. We're the moral people. We're the religious people.
See, there's a real conflict here, and that's where we're at in the Gospel of Mark. All throughout chapter 2, even going into chapter 3, we get five different accounts. This is the second one, where Jesus is doing something, and then the scribes have a problem with what Jesus is doing, and there's going to be controversy, there's going to be conflict. So, the scribes here, specifically, these scribes are Pharisees, but the scribes are going to be the adversaries to Jesus. And we saw a glimpse of that back in chapter 1, verse 22. Go back to Mark 1:22. Maybe you remember Jesus teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, and “he taught as one who had authority, and everyone was astonished at his teaching,” and it says in Mark 1:22 when they're “astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the” who? The “scribe”. So, I don't know what comes to your mind when you hear “scribe”. Maybe you think of somebody writing down the law or copying the law of Moses. Well, they might have done that, but they were more like scholars of the law of Moses. They were more teachers of the law of Moses. If you went to the synagogue and somebody read from the Scripture and they started explaining it, they would usually be one of the scribes. So, the scribes are some kind of people in the position in the religious leadership of Judaism at that time. In fact, ultimately, there could be scribes in different towns and different synagogues, but ultimately it would go to Jerusalem, where there was the Sanhedrin, where there were seventy who were a part of this official group. And if you think of this collection of Jewish scholars, the Sanhedrin, the seventy, including the chief priests, well, you’ve got to think of it kind of like a group like Congress or parliament. Just because you're one of the 70, they don't all get along, they don't all agree. They all have their different teachings. There's one sect known as the Pharisees, there's another sect known as the Sadducees, and there are plenty of other people who believe different things. And so, these scribes are the religious leaders of the Jews. The Pharisees is the group of scribes that we hear the most about reading through the gospels. And so, that's who these guys are. They're scribes of the Pharisees. And so, you’ve got to think of them as the religious leaders. They're that. They're the moral people, like they're going to quote what God says, and they're going to judge people who aren't doing what God says and what is actually true. And what we're going to see as we go through Mark is that the religious leadership was just as rife with corruption as the tax collector profession. There were all kinds of wrong things happening among the religious people, the right people. But see, here they are acting like we're better than Jesus. We're the ones you should listen to. We're the real teachers of the law. You want to know why? Because we wouldn't eat with sinners like them. That's what they're saying here. And Jesus, he doesn't step away from the controversy. In fact, Jesus, he shows up at the end of this passage. He called this man, this tax collector, to follow him. Now he's in the presence of many tax collectors, and it sounds like many of them are going to follow Jesus, because they have this essential ingredient to being a disciple. They see that they are sinners, and they're hearing Jesus, and they're wanting to follow Jesus, but then these guys act like Jesus, you can't trust him. He's with the sinners. We're over here. We're not with the sinners. And look what Jesus says, verse 17. This is such an amazing statement. I hope you'll really think about this. “When Jesus heard how they bashed him eating with the tax collectors and the sinners, how they questioned 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” who, everybody? Sinners is who I came for, like you guys don't get it. No, I came for people like Matthew, this guy, Levi, the tax collector.
See, so, we’ve got to make this very clear, because the people saying Jesus is a friend of sinners, the people bashing Jesus for that, are the Pharisees. They're the religious people. And when we talk about Jesus going and being a friend of sinners, we're not talking about Jesus going to the bar and hanging out, or going to some sketchy place and hanging out with sinners? No, it's more like the bar clearing out and all coming to Bible study with Jesus is more what's happening. Okay, it's more like people are realizing they are sinners, and they're hearing Jesus teach them of a new way, and they're realizing I really needed way in my life, because the way I'm living is not working. The way I'm living is not right with God. The way I'm living is going to lead to judgment. And now here's Jesus teaching this new way. Wow, I should really turn from my sinful way, and I should really listen to what Jesus has to say. And so, it's not just like he's hanging out with sinners while they're sinning. The sinners, it says many of these sinners are acknowledging their sin and now following Jesus. They're leaving behind their sin. Once he left the tax booth, he wasn't a tax collector anymore. I'm sure all kinds of people scooped up that opportunity right behind him. There's no going back to that. He's in to follow Jesus now.
So, you're talking about people admitting they're sinners and then becoming disciples. Disciples are “learners”. Jesus is the rabbi, the teacher, and when you're a disciple, you're saying, I'm a sinner. I need to learn a new way to live. So, teach me your ways, Jesus. Let me follow your example. Let me go in your steps. See, I realize that my sinful way that I've been living is leading me to destruction, teach me a new way to live. That's what's happening here. And the righteous people, the moral people, the religious people, are looking down on it, like those people, they're just evil. You should have nothing to do with them. And Jesus is like, no, I came for them. I came to call the sinners. In fact, I really want you to pay attention to what Jesus says, because he could have said, no, I came for those who can see themselves as sinners. No, I came for sinners like this. But he didn't just say that. He said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Does everybody hear Jesus say that like, Oh, you think you're right, you think you're good, you think you already know God, and you're religious and you're moral? Yeah, I didn't come to call you. I came to call people like Matthew the tax collector, who can see that he's a sinner, and if you can't see that you're a sinner, I didn't come to call you. Wow.
I mean, Jesus steps right into that controversy, and he looks right at these scribes, you guys think you're the righteous ones. I didn't come to call the righteous. Wow. We need to really hear Jesus say that because, see, I grew up going to church. I don't know how long you've been going to church, but I grew up going to church, most of it in Orange County, California. Definitely, I've been to a lot of churches in Southern California. See, I'm a child of the Jesus Movement. My dad, he got saved in the 1970s when all the college campuses were filled with evangelism, and all the churches were growing. They called it the Jesus Movement, and some people came up and they shared the good news of Jesus with my dad. He'd never heard it before. He hadn't grown up going to church, but he heard the good news. He believed in Jesus. Do you know that in some of our lifetime, there was a time where everyone in America associated Southern California with the name of Jesus. Can you believe that the Jesus Movement was a phenomenon that happened in the 70s, that was known throughout the country, and many people, like my dad, admitted they were sinners and turned to follow Jesus. A lot of people did. In fact, my mom saw this guy carrying his Bible all over their college campus. She found that very attractive. They got married. Here I am today, everybody. They read me the Bible as long as I can remember. They took me to church as long as I can remember. And when I was growing up in church, I heard a lot of people act like we're the right people, we're the religious people. We're over here doing what God says in his Word, and those people out there, they're the problem, but we’ve got to hold on to what we're doing right here. That's how I grew up. That's the kind of impression I was given. And then I would read stories like this, and I would think, wait a minute, are we supposed to just be a holy huddle? Are we supposed to just hunker down and act like that big, bad, evil world out there, let them all just do whatever they're doing. We're just going to hang on right here ourselves. Is that really what Jesus is saying? Is that how he's teaching us? I had to really think this through for myself, because I found myself among the righteous, and I was like, I don't know if this is exactly right, exactly the way it should be.
Go with me back to Luke. Go to Luke 18, verse 9. Luke, he takes this idea of the tax collectors and the Pharisees, and he doesn't just have one story about this, like Mark does in his gospel. Luke's got a whole bunch of stories about this. And Luke 7, there's like a sinner woman and a Pharisee who has Jesus over in Luke 15. And the Pharisees are making fun of Jesus for being with the tax collectors. That's when he tells the great story of the prodigal son. So, Luke, he makes this like the theme of his whole gospel, tax collectors representing the sinners and scribes, Pharisees, representing the religious and the righteous. And he just keeps telling stories that show the controversy, the contrast and who is Jesus with in all of Luke's stories? Who is Jesus associating with the moral righteous people or the sinner people? Which one do you think? Well, here's how Jesus says it, right here in Luke 18, verse ni9ne, look at how Jesus tells this story. To make this point, he told this parable to who? To some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous. So let me just clarify. When we're talking about the righteous people, we're talking about a self-righteousness. We're not talking about admitting I'm a sinner, and the only way to be righteous is Jesus. No, I think I'm righteous because I grew up Christian. I think I'm righteous because I know the right way to vote. I think I'm righteous because I do good things compared to those people. Well, Jesus has a story for people who think like that. You think you're righteous. You treat other people with contempt. You think you're good because you don't compare yourself to God, you compare yourself to other people, and you think you're better than them? Well, let me tell a story to you. That's what happens here. This parable is for some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray. One, a Pharisee poster person for the righteous. One, a tax collector poster person for the sinner. And the Pharisees, standing by himself, prayed thus,” God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified. This man went down to his house declared righteous by God rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
Do you realize how many people I've met going to church? Even here at our church? I was born a Christian. I've always been a Christian. Of course I'm a Christian. That’s the whole way I was raised. Have you ever heard people talk like that. I think we have got to be very careful about anybody talking about that, because every testimony is going to be the same, and they're all different, whether you grew up going to church or out there in the world. Yeah, there might be different things, but they're all the same in that I am a sinner who needs to be saved by Jesus. Nobody starts out on the right side. Everybody is not born a believer. You are born a sinner. There is only one who is good, and his name is Jesus.
So, this common idea that there are good people, I hear people talk like that all the time here at our church. Oh, that guy's a good person. Well, that guy's not a believer, but he's a great guy. You can totally trust him. Oh, that guy, that guy, he's a good kid over there. Oh, that's a good gal over there. All these people, they're real good people. Have you heard people talk like that? Where do we get this idea that people are good? Either people are good, or God is good. Which one is it? Because there's only one who is good and there's nobody else like him, God is good. And the only way that people get good is they experience the goodness of God, which we call grace. And if you're already good by yourself, then you don't need grace. And we are saved by the goodness of God, which is given to us by grace. We have been saved. So, good people, the idea that there are good people, that's the idea of the Pharisee. That's the idea of the scribe. I do what God says. I do, what is right. I do what is moral. I'm not like those people. If you think that way, what Jesus is saying today is, I didn't come to call you, and you're not going home justified.
This is strong language that people at church today really need to take to heart, because I've been at church my whole life, and I've seen a whole lot of God. I thank you I'm not like other people. What do you mean? You're not like other people. You're exactly like other people. We're all people. Now we've all fallen short of the glory of God. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? We've all missed the mark of God's commandments. We've all done things we knew were wrong when we did them, and now we're going to come to church like we're better than other people. Very common, but Jesus is out here teaching against it, and I wonder how many people can really hear what Jesus is saying, that he's looking for sinners. He's looking at resume, sinner. See, you're going to meet somebody and they're going to say something to you like this, like, well, I can't go to church. Your church will burn down if I go there, if I go to church, God will strike me with lightning right when I come through the door. Have you ever had this conversation with somebody, somebody who knows they're a sinner? You should say to them right away, actually, you're the kind of person that Jesus is looking for. He's looking for someone who knows they're a sinner. You might be closer to being one of his disciples than you think, because he went to the tax booth and he got this guy that everybody saw as a sinner, sketchy guy, Matthew, and he invited Matthew to follow him.
And the whole point is that it was like a controversy. How could he have a sinner following him? And that was the whole point. He came to call sinners. So, if you think you're a sinner and you're here with us today at the 11 o'clock service, we want to welcome you in because someone who can see that they're a sinner, now you're ready to be a disciple; somebody who thinks they're already righteous. Jesus didn't come to call you. So, we’ve got to be very careful if you hear people act like I've always been a Christian, I would encourage you to say to them, What do you mean by that? Because weren’t we all sinners who need to be saved? Isn't that how you become a Christian? Well, if you hear somebody say they're a good person, okay, well, okay, I kind of get what you mean. But what do you mean by that? You're saying that they have goodness coming out of who they are on the inside. Is that what you mean by good people? Go with me to Romans, chapter 3, where we learn together as a church, that Paul, he wrote this passage to once and for all, put away this idea that there were good people. And he assembled so many different Scriptures from the Hebrew Bible, from the Psalms here, and he brought together here in Romans 3:9-20. This passage is supposed to prove to every single one of us that no one does good, not even one, no one is righteous, not even one. There's only one who is worthy of calling a good person, and his name is Jesus. Nobody else is a good person, not even that nice kid or that kind person over here. “No one does good, not even one,” quoting multiple Psalms here to make this point. And then there were two super compelling things that he said here that I thought could really prove to us that we're not good people, that nobody's a good person. They're not often talked about. But look at verse 13. Look at what he says here. “Their throat is an open grave.” This is Romans 3:13-14, “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” What does he bring to our attention here? Throat, tongues, lips, mouth, the things they say.
You think people are good? Listen to what they say. Man, have you ever said something that hurt someone else, even someone you claim to love, like your spouse? You say words that hurt them, your own kids, that God's blessed you with. You let them really have it, people that are just driving by on the street, you talk bad about them. You say one thing to your neighbor's face. You say another thing behind your neighbor's back. You have created whole false realities. This is what really happened. You've told people, knowing the whole time it does not correspond to truth, but you told them a good story of what happened. And I have said many evil things in my life. I have said things that have hurt my wife, hurt my children. I have said things that have hurt my friends, and as soon as I said them, I might as well have just painted them on the wall, because they weren't going anywhere after I said them. And you want to know why I said them? I said them because I'm an evil person. My words are the thoughts and intents that come from my where? My heart, who I really am. We live in a culture that wants to blame everybody else for our problems. We are the problem. And I say mean things to people because I'm mean. I say hurtful things to other people because I want to defend myself, I will quickly put myself above other people. You want to know how you can know listen to the words that come out of my mouth, singing songs on Sunday, cursing on Monday, lying to people like, it's okay to just make up truth.
Why would you do that? Who taught you to do that? Oh, you don't need a teacher for that. That's you. Like, look at your words. Have you seen the hurt in your loved ones’ faces when you spoke to them? That's sin, that's you. And then he goes on. Look at verses 16-18, “in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Like, have you ever just sat down and let somebody tell you their life story? Have you ever just provided an opportunity where someone can tell you're going to listen, you're going to pay attention, you're going to ask follow-up questions, and they just start telling you, well, I grew up like this, and then this happened to me, and then this happened to me. If you listen to the person's life story, guess what? It's full of broken relationships, bad choices, like here they are in the boat of their life, there is a wake behind them of ruin and misery. And how do people describe themselves? I've been here all three services, heard all these testimonies of people getting baptized. Here's the kind of things I hear all the time. I was anxious, I was depressed, I had suicidal ideations. All these dark and disturbed thoughts are in my mind all the time, and I'm not thinking, what does God want me to do? I'm not thinking I should turn to God. I'm thinking, why isn't life working out for me the way I want it to work out? Yeah, that's how we are. We are sinners. Every single one of us. There are no other kinds of people. We are the people. And once you can admit that about yourself, now Jesus can teach you the new way. But if you can't admit that about yourself, then you really need to think this through, because you then are one of the righteous who think you're right and other people are wrong. You don't actually resemble the kind of people Jesus came to call, the sinners. You resemble the kind of people he came not to call, the righteous who trust in themselves and look down on other people. So which one are you? Because just because you come to church, this is where the self-righteous people come, just because you come to church, that's one of the lies that is the Pharisee mindset of our time. You don't have to be a Jew to be a Pharisee. You don't have to know the law of Moses to be a Pharisee. These days, in fact, many people, they don't even care about the law of Moses, but here's what they do care about. I go to church. Why? Because I am what kind of person? A good person, a moral person, a righteous person.
That kind of thinking is everywhere, and that kind of thinking is what Jesus is teaching against. I didn't come to call that kind of thinking. You actually can't be one of the disciples with that kind of thinking. No, the only way you can be a disciple is you’ve got to see yourself as a sinner. That's the only way. Then he can teach you his new way to live. Have you seen yourself as a sinner? Have you come to him and admitted that to him? That is the beginning of everybody's testimony of Jesus Christ, and it's actually what he is looking for. And he sees it in Peter. He sees it in Matthew. Does he see it in you?
Now, go back with me to Mark 2:17 because I want to really think this through, this profound truth that Jesus gives us. He uses an analogy that we know. Maybe you know it better than others. Some of you who have been very sick yourself, or you've had a loved one who has been sick, and you didn't know what was going on. You were afraid that this sickness was going to lead to death. When you're healthy, you don't really think about it. When you're well, you don't really see your need. But when you are sick, then you need a physician. We would usually use the word today, a doctor. You want someone who's got the cure. You want someone who knows how to heal. And so, if you ever get sick and you're like, man, I feel terrible. What's going on with me? You're looking for a doctor. If your loved one, you can tell something's not right with them. Will somebody please help us? You're looking for this physician. And so, Jesus uses that way. Hey, have you ever been sick and you really needed help, and you looked for the physician? Yeah, that's like me coming like, do you know you're a sinner, because then you're looking for me, because I'm the Savior. Do you know you have a problem that you can't cure? Do you know you have a disease you can't fix yourself? Well, see, then and when once you know you're a sinner, that's where I come in, because I'm like the physician who can heal those who are sick. See, I'm the one who came for the sinners. That's the problem, that I can now Jesus, he proved his power to heal the sick back in chapter 1, you can see in verse 32. And when the sun went down on that Sabbath in Capernaum, “they brought all who were sick” to Jesus, and Jesus healed all of them. So, he knew about this analogy, but here he's not talking about healing them from their physical sicknesses. He's talking about healing them from their sins, saving them from their sins. Jesus is the only one who can truly change you from the inside out. Jesus is the only one who can actually make you righteous, like Jesus. Anyone who is in Christ, behold, they're a new creation. The old them is gone. Look at the new you that Jesus can teach you to be. But see, you’ve got to see, I'm a sinner who needs a savior.
Let's get that down for number two: “See Jesus as the Savior of all mankind.” When Jesus says, “I came not to call the righteous but sinners,” that's a Purpose Statement, that is a Mission Statement. Jesus is now declaring to anyone who will listen to him why he humbled himself and left heaven where he shared the glory with the Father, why he put on flesh and walked among us. Here's my purpose. Here's my mission. I came not to call the righteous, but who? Sinners.
So, we started with, can you see you're a sinner? Then we warned you, if you think you're righteous, he didn't come for you. But here's the main part of the statement we need to focus on. I came. Here's my purpose. Here's why I'm here, because there is sin, and somebody needs to do something about this sin. And I am the anointed one. I am the chosen one. I am the Christ, the one that God sent to die as the atoning sacrifice, to pay for sin and to rise from the dead, to offer everyone who will believe in me, eternal, abundant life. It's me. I came for the sinners.
Man. Do you see who Jesus really is? How could we say Jesus is a great Savior? He's a wonderful, merciful Savior, a precious Redeemer and friend. Jesus is the Savior of all mankind. He died, not only for our sins, but the sins of the whole world. So, let's just be a holy huddle over here and huddle down now and judge everybody. How did that happen? How did it happen here, where it was known for the Jesus Movement, and people were going up to complete strangers like my dad and telling him about Jesus? And now that's not the way it is anymore. How did that happen? We lost sight of him. We lost who he really is.
Do you know what the name Jesus means? Do you know why they gave him the name Jesus? Because he came to save his people from their what? He was looking for us. He was looking for sinners. We are the target audience. We are the reason. We are the purpose that he came for. I came not for the righteous, not for those Pharisees, not for those scribes. I came for the tax collectors. I came for the fishermen. I came for the people who knew something was wrong with them. That's who I came to heal.
Go with me to Luke 19. Luke 19, he tells the story of this man, Zacchaeus. Maybe you're familiar with this story, but Jesus is going to Jericho. Jericho is outside of Jerusalem, so a lot of people probably stopped in Jericho before they went up the big hill to the city of Jerusalem. And so, “He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.” Now, it says about Zacchaeus, “He was a chief tax collector and was rich.” When you hear that he was chief tax collector, what that should tell you is Zacchaeus had guys. All right. Zacchaeus didn't do the dirty work. He sent other people to do the dirty work. He's the boss. He's the head of the organized crime. He's like the guy you would picture somewhere, evilly counting other people's money. That’s Zacchaeus. He's greedy. He's materialistic. If you know Zacchaeus and Jericho, you don't like him because he doesn't care about you. He just wants what he can take from you. And apparently he's good at it, because he's the Chief Tax Collector. He's rich. So, Zacchaeus, I mean, he's running to see Jesus, but we should all note that the description of him should make us all think Big Boss, bad guy. That's Zacchaeus. And then it says in verse 3, “He was seeking to see” who? Jesus, but on account of the crowd, he could not. There's a big crowd here in Jericho because “he was small in stature.” So, even though Zacchaeus is the big boss bad guy, he's not very big. Is everybody tracking with this? And if God's blessed you with short people in your life, this is the biblical way to say it, “small in stature,” everybody. Okay, so that's who Zacchaeus is. And “So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.’ So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully” into his house. So, you see the way the story is told. There's like a plot twist where you think Zacchaeus is coming to see Jesus, but who's actually the one looking for Zacchaeus? Jesus is the one seeking him. Jesus just invited himself over to the Chief Tax Collector's house, the baddest sinner in town's house, Jesus invites himself over to see Zacchaeus.
People in town, look at this, verse 7, “when they saw it,” when greater Jericho sees what's going on, “they all grumbled, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a” what everybody? A sinner. How could Jesus go to Zacchaeus house? He could have gone to your house or my house. He could have gone anywhere. Any house would be better than Zacchaeus house. He's a sinner. Exactly, exactly. That's why Jesus went there. And then look what happens. This is amazing. Verse 8, “And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.’” So he's rich. I'm giving half of it away right now, off the top. And then, “if I have defrauded anyone of anything,” which, as a chief tax collector, you have definitely defrauded many people of many things, “I restore it fourfold,” which means if, back in 2023 Zacchaeus took you for an extra 250 more than he had taken, you're now going to receive a check from Zacchaeus for 1000, because he's going to give you four times what he took you for. So that's why you can only give away half of his riches, because he's going to need the rest of it to pay back everybody he's taken from over the years.
And so, this is remarkable repentance. “And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man,” that's how Jesus referred to himself, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the” who? Ah, the sinners, the perishing. He came to seek them out. He's looking for them. He came to save them, to change them, to transform them. Hey, you want to know my Purpose Statement, Mission Statement. You want to define me in a sentence, I came to seek out and save the people that everybody knows are bad, including themselves. I came for the lost. I am on a search and rescue mission for souls.
See, I'm growing up going to church, and I don't see a lot of people caring about people's souls. I don't see a lot of people going and reaching out very much. Feels like we're just maintaining, we're just actually trying to keep our distance, because who knows what they're thinking. We're thinking what the Bible says over here. We’ve got to stay away from them. And it just feels like, well, I'm going to be in the same place with the same people the same time every week, and we're just going to try to hang on until nothing bad really happens. And then I'm reading passages like this where Jesus, he's going out to the bad guy's house, and then he's making a point. He's making a Purpose Statement. So, see, when I'm growing up, I have to make a decision, am I going to Holy huddle over here with the church and act like I'm better than other people? Is that what Jesus would want me to do? Because I keep hearing Jesus say I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners. I came to seek and save the lost. And it makes me think that maybe I'm supposed to go towards those who need Jesus, not away from them.
And so, can you see who Jesus really is? Because Jesus, he wasn't just trying to hang on to what he had. He was going after sinners. And so, you've got to decide what you're going to do. Join the holy huddle, or reach the lost. Which road, which path are you going to go down? Jesus wants you to know I came for this path, the lost path, the sinners’ path. That's who I came to seek and save. Where are you? See, I took the road less traveled, and it's made all the difference for me. What? What have you decided to do? Have you decided to embrace the mission of Jesus to reach sinners? Or are you more about preserving yourself, saving yourself? Jesus wants it to be known, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. And we need to really hear this if you want to be a disciple. So, it starts with you being a sinner.
So, I want to speak to people in this room right now that know you are a sinner as you listen to this. Sometimes, when I'm talking to sinners, they think I'm too far gone. No, if you know you are a sinner, that's the thing that you need to know. To be a disciple of Jesus, you need to confess that the way you have been living is wrong. You need to turn from that in repentance, and when you trust that Jesus, he died for your sins, he rose again to give you a new life, Jesus can teach you a new way by his Spirit. So, you could believe that today and you could be saved. You could come and talk to me. You could go talk to someone at the Easy Up in the courtyard, talk to somebody you know here at the church. If you know you're a sinner, you're on the right track. Confess that sin, turn from that sin, see Jesus as your savior, trust in him, and if you're like, well, I was a sinner, but then Jesus saved me, and now I'm learning how to live my new life. I'm a Christian. I'm a believer. I've been declared righteous by my faith. It's all by grace. I've been saved. Okay, well, great, praise God for saving us. Praise God for making us the church. Now, what should we do as the church? Should we huddle up here in Huntington Beach? Or should we think we’ve got to reach the lost. We’ve got to be welcoming the sinners. I’ve got to go to that person that thinks the church will burn down if they show up, or that person who thinks they'll get struck by lightning, that person who knows they're out there that, yes, I should be going and talking to them. When was the last time you reached out to somebody that you felt like was a sketchy person? You felt like they were uncomfortable. They're a sinner. Yes, Jesus called those guys. He said to them, “Follow me.” They wrote books of the Bible. They got new names. They don't even get recognized as sinners anymore. Now they're known as saints because they learned the new way of Jesus. We all start out as wretched sinners, and we should be trying to reach those folks.
So, are you on the mission? Are you on the team? Can you say, oh, well, Jesus came for that, but I'm here for something else, really. How could we not be here to follow him? If we're here to be his disciples, shouldn't we do what he did with his disciples, which was reach the tax collectors. So where are you at with making disciples? Are you on the mission with Jesus? Because I know there are a lot of people here who are on the mission, and they're looking for someone to disciple, and I just wanted to be clear to our entire church, when you're looking for someone to disciple. You start with this. They know they're a sinner. Now you're ready. They could be somebody who's not even saved. They could be somebody who is saved, but they got these issues that they need to grow in this sanctification. They don't know how to put their sin off. They don't know how to obey. There's so much to learn, and you can tell they know that they're humble enough to admit that they're asking for help now. Now invest in that person and trust yourself to them. Give them everything you've got, teach them everything you know about Jesus, and watch the person who knows they're a sinner. They'll become Peter, they'll become Matthew, they'll become people of whom the world is not worthy. Why? Because they're following Jesus. He loves to teach, seeing sinners the way he came to call, not the righteous, but sinners. Let me pray, and then we'll sing together.
Father, I just am so concerned about this that we would just hear this and think, oh, that's great. Jesus said that he stood up to those Pharisees, and we wouldn't even realize that we could be those Pharisees. So, I pray that we could really hear what Jesus is saying here today. Father, I pray that you would really open eyes to see and give us ears to hear. I pray that if there's anybody here and they know they're a sinner, I pray that they would hear Jesus calling them right now, that they thought maybe they came here today, but actually Jesus is inviting himself over to their house today. He came to seek and save them. And so, I pray for sinners that they would be saved here today as they trust in the righteousness of Jesus. And then I pray for everybody who's coming to church like they're righteous. I pray that if there's anybody who's thinking, well, I've always been a Christian, and I'm one of the good people, that you would show them, that's not a right way to think, no, we all start out as sinners who need to be saved by grace through faith in the only righteous one, Jesus. There is no self-made righteous person. And so, God, I pray that you would purify our church. I pray that you would protect us from this Pharisaical way of thinking, where we think we're better than other people. No, God, I pray that we would know we are the people we're all sinners, saved by grace. And I pray that we could hear the Mission Statement of Jesus, that we could hear his purpose, that he came to seek and save the lost. He came for the sinners, and that you would put that on the hearts of your people here, that we would be on the mission to make disciples, that we would have the same purpose. How could Jesus have a purpose and then we have a different purpose? God, please don't ever let us make up our own purpose here at Compass Bible church, Huntington Beach. Let us be living on the purpose of Jesus, and let us be like, oh, this person thinks they're a sinner, yeah, let me tell you I was. I'm a sinner too. That's how I was born. But see, then I came near the cross of Jesus, and I saw someone who would love me to die for me. I saw someone who would pay for my sins. I saw his blood flowing, mingled down at the foot of the cross, and I knew he shed that blood for me. And I stopped my sin. I transferred my trust. I turned to Jesus, and he saved me out of my sin. God, I pray that we'll always stay near the cross. I pray that there won't be good people, there will just be graced people, and that all the glory will always only belong to Jesus for saving sinners like us, because he and he alone is the Savior of all mankind. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.