"A Faith that Reaches Beyond!" (Mark 2:13-17)

“A Faith that Reaches Beyond!”

Falling in Love with Jesus…all over again! An epic journey through the Gospel of Mark (message #13)

Pastor Jerry Ingalls

April 10, 2011

The Word of God from Mark 2:13-17 (NAU), ¹³ And He went out again by the seashore; and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them. ¹⁴ As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, "Follow Me!" And he got up and followed Him. ¹⁵ And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. ¹⁶ When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, "Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?" ¹⁷ And hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." [Prayer]

In today’s Scripture lesson we are back walking along the Sea of Galilee (the city of Capernaum is on the north-western coast). This is very likely the same area found in Mark 1:16-20 when Jesus Christ calls the four fishermen, Simon and Andrew & James and John, stating “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men” (17). They left their boats behind to follow Jesus!

It was immediately after the calling of these first four disciples that Jesus of Nazareth entered the Capernaum synagogue and His fame began to grow as did the animosity between Him and the religious leaders of the day. We are at a time months later and Jesus now cannot go anywhere publically without building an audience.

Jesus is walking and teaching in the open air as many Jewish Rabbis of the day would have, but something very different happens in this story that never happened with any respectable Jewish person, nevertheless a Rabbi, and definitely not the Messiah according to the Pharisee's mindset of who the Messiah would be. Jesus reached beyond the acceptable cultural and religious barriers of His day and was met by disdain and criticism for doing so. They were blinded to Jesus being Messiah by their own cultural and religious barriers! Jesus reached beyond…

Let’s learn from Jesus Christ what it means to have a faith that reaches beyond. First, A PERSON OF FAITH REACHES BEYOND THEIR COMFORT ZONE!

Mark 2:13-14 starts the story, “And He went out again by the seashore; and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, ‘Follow Me!’ And he got up and followed Him.”

A quick history lesson is necessary for us to understand why this story is so radical and how Jesus’ example teaches us that a person of faith reaches beyond their comfort zone.

Levi the son of Alphaeus is the disciple we know as Matthew (see Matthew 9:9) and his occupation was as a tax collector who worked for Herod Antipas. His boss was hated and feared by the Jews and so were the men who would not only collect the taxes, but who would line their own pockets by stealing from the people by charging them too much.

Jesus called a hated man to be His disciple! A tax collector; a sinner who from the day he took the job as a tax collector was not allowed into the circles of religious men; an outcast from the Jewish mainstream culture. This is the type of person that the religious people had contempt for because of his amoral way of life. They thought they were better and they also feared him because they were afraid of the contagion of the sinner and would avoid any possible contact with such a person.

What type of person do you avoid? Do you struggle with worldly pride or fleshly prejudice? Does fear or contempt stop you from reaching beyond your comfort zone?

Jesus confronted the pride and prejudice, the contempt and fear of the religious leaders who imposed religious and cultural barriers on people by reaching beyond their barriers to touch the life of a sinner. Jesus knew that in order to cure the disease, it was necessary to come into contact with those who are sick. Jesus confronted his own disciples (and the Holy Spirit is confronting us today) that the man or woman with pride and prejudice, or fear and contempt, can never be a fisher of men. A fisher of men must reach beyond the barriers of their culture and religious institutions.

Here is the deal friends, many of us have been raised with similar cultural and religious barriers so they are ingrained into our sensibilities and thinking—they have become our comfort zones of what it means to be a good person. Jesus requires of us through His example and teaching that must reach beyond our comfort zones if we are to be disciples--fishers of men!

It is so easy for us to remain comfortable and play the game of in-group/out-group in our community, in our churches, and in our homes. Jesus addresses a religious leader in Luke 14:12-14 stating, “Then Jesus said to his host, ‘When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’”

Jesus’ model demands of us to reach beyond our comfort zone and that means we must allow the Holy Spirit to do something in us that is very uncomfortable; we must allow Him to convict us of sin so that we can repent and seek the lost. Not with an attitude of superiority or contempt, but as sinners who found the cure--Jesus.

Are you willing to go outside of your comfort zone? What person or people group is the Holy Spirit putting on your heart right now? [Pray] Pray that God will empower you and make a way for you to reach out to this person or these people.

This leads us into our second teaching point, A PERSON OF FAITH REACHES BEYOND TO INVITE PEOPLE TO MEET JESUS CHRIST!

The story gets even more controversial in Mark 2:15-16, “And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, ‘Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?’”

Jesus is now having table fellowship with the tax collectors and sinners and he is being charged by the Pharisees with moral carelessness. In this culture, to have table fellowship is to show acceptance for someone, and the religious leaders were shocked at the core of their very being that Jesus would condescend to the level of eating with tax collectors and sinners. Little did they know how much the Son of God had already condescended to have fellowship even with them!

Jesus is defying every religious convention of His day: you don’t eat meals with sinners; you don’t talk with them and associate with them; you don't call them to be your disciple! His actions cause deep animosity with the Pharisees and the hatred deepens as Jesus shows more love for the people then their religious rules! Grumbling + Complaining begins. Do you allow critics and complainers to stop you from building relationships with certain people who you are called to share Jesus Christ with?

These religious leaders and their barriers didn't stop Jesus from fulfilling the very purpose He came, nor should it stop us from being a part of God’s perfect plan to reconcile sinners! Jesus was not morally careless; He loved deeply and compassion moved him to seek and save the lost. Jesus knew exactly what He was doing and why He was doing it; He was proclaiming the peace of God to those who were far away and to those who were near.

Ephesians 2:17-20 proclaims this reconciling ministry of Jesus Christ, “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

A person of faith reaches beyond to invite people to meet Jesus Christ who is the one who can bring all people together into the one family of God—the Church. We must go into our communities, to those who are far away and preach peace with God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We must go to the most hated and undesirable peoples of our communities and have fellowship with them, being filled with love and acceptance, not filled with contempt thinking we are superior nor filled with fear thinking their sin is contagious like the Pharisees. It is our mission to invite people to be a part of the family of God so we are providing invitation postcards for you to hand out for the Holy Week services that start next week. [Invitations]

Do we, FBC, create a safe place for all people to meet Jesus Christ? Do you reach beyond your comfort zone while you are in this building on Sunday mornings? Do you go out of your way to meet new people every Sunday? Are you in a comfort zone that prevents you from reaching out to new people, to people who dress different, look different, or sound different? Do you look for people who you can invite into your life?

Our third teaching point, A PERSON OF FAITH REACHES BEYOND SO THAT JESUS CAN REACH IN AND HEAL HEARTS!

The conclusion of this story is Jesus’ answer to the Scribes question, ‘Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?’ Mark 2:17 records, “And hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” Jesus teaches us that He is the heart doctor and it is His mission to heal the sick; those who are dead in their sin. Are we like the Pharisees and don’t see our need for the heart doctor because we see ourselves as healthy by our own righteousness? Let us never forget that it is by grace we are saved. It's a privilege afforded to us by God to be a member of the body of Christ. Are we like the Pharisees filled with contempt and fear toward sinners that causes us not to reach out to them? Are you in need of the heart doctor?

The reason we reach beyond our comfort zones and introduce people to Jesus Christ is because without Jesus Christ people are spiritually dead in their sin. Before God’s gift of salvation, you too were dead in your sin and bound for Hell like a child of wrath. The good news is that as long as there is breath in the lungs of this temporary body, then a sinner has a chance to be healed of their spiritual death through faith in the one who bought us life through His death. You too were once upon a time brought to Jesus as a sinner and He healed you! Romans 5:8 proclaims, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus calls us to be fishers of men. Fishermen don't clean the catch while it's still swimming in the pond. No, you travel out to the pond and you catch dirty fish, then you clean them. Are you ready to go fishing in your community? Stay tuned, we are planning at least four fishing trips this summer into our community.

Jesus Christ reached beyond heaven to reach in and heal your heart. In response to this great love, are you willing to leave behind your reputation, comfort, and security in order to live a life of faith that reaches beyond? Are we as a church?

God will do this work in and through us, but He needs a people who are willing to give a 100% commitment to acquire the Kingdom of God. Unlike the four fishermen, who left behind their boats Matthew could never go back to being a tax collector. He left the tax booth, walked away from it all. He did more than leave behind the fishing boats, he burned the ships! And history has told His story and we know that all he left behind paled in comparison to all that He gained in following Jesus! What story will history tell of you?

God never goes back on the person who gives everything to follow Jesus Christ. [show images of burning ships] In the year 1519, Spanish Conqueror Hernando Cortes landed in the Yucatán Peninsula with 11 ships manned by 100 sailors carrying 530 soldiers with the primary ambition of acquiring a vast Aztec treasure of immense wealth. Upon landing at the beachhead and looking at this hard journey inland deep into the Aztec Empire, the grumbling began, the fear rose, and temptations of mutiny and turning back started to become a very real situation amongst Cortes’ men, but Cortes had a solution in mind.

Knowing that mission success would take the 100% commitment of his men, Cortes burned the ships focusing himself and the men on the journey ahead. There was now only one choice: mission success or certain death.

There was no going back! The ships of fear & quitting, insecurity & doubt, divided loyalties & false allegiances were now burned and they had to each give 100% together to set their life course toward the vast treasure of the Aztec Empire. What are your ships?

What is preventing you from doing what Matthew did? He left everything behind to follow Jesus Christ. Is there something or someone preventing you from giving a 100% commitment to following Jesus Christ? What prevents you from wholeheartedly setting your life course toward the vast treasure of the Kingdom of God? Are you willing to burn your ships?