Immanuel Sermon Audio
Luke 5:1-32
All right. Find in your Bible, Luke chapter 5. Taught Sunday school this morning, and by the end of Sunday school, I thought my voice was going to be just completely gone. And so I've tried not to talk too much after Sunday school, but we'll see. If I get about halfway through and you can't hear me, we'll go turn the volume up a little bit louder. Our theme verse in our Sunday morning series is up on the screen. It's the title of the series, Luke 19, 10. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. And this week, as I sat down and I read our passage, Luke 5, verse 1 to 32, I spent a decent amount of time trying to come up with, what is the big idea of these verses? How can we wrap our arms around all that Luke is telling us in this passage? And here's what I came up with. After lots of prayer, lots of study, lots of thinking about it. Are you ready? Here's the big idea. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. That's what I went to seminary for, right? I thought and I thought and I thought and I kept coming to Brown saying, "Well, he's seeking people in this passage, and he's saving people in this passage, and Jesus is actively going after those who are lost." And so let's just sum it up with the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. 32 verses, there's four stories, and we could easily take these four stories and separate them. We could look at one story each week. And my guess is that if you've been around church very long, you've heard a Sunday school lesson or a sermon on Sunday morning about these stories individually, and there's value in that. The danger is sometimes in our Bible study we focus so much on the trees that you miss the forest. And sometimes when you step back and you take a couple of stories together, you realize, "Look, Luke wrote these stories here together for a reason. They go together. They fit together. They all are communicating the same idea. And so that's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to look at these 32 verses, four stories, and you see a picture of Jesus seeking and saving the lost. And so if you have your Bible, follow along as I read beginning in Luke 5, and we'll go all the way to verse 32. So this is the word of God. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Ganesarette, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, 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 and let down your nets for a catch." And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the nets." And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. 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 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's 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. While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him. And he charged him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as Moses commanded for a proof to them. But now, even more, the report about him went abroad and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he, Jesus, would withdraw to desolate places and pray. On one of those days as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who would come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed, a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus. But finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you." And the scribes and Pharisees begin to question, saying, "Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" And when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, "Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you or to say rise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." And he said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home." And immediately, he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. An amazement seized them all and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, "We have seen extraordinary things today." After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, "Follow me." And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house. And there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" And Jesus answered them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." Let's pray. Father, we're grateful for your Word. We are grateful for the time of singing and worship that we have enjoyed this morning. Father, you deserve all of our praise. And as we now submit ourselves to the authority of your Word, we pray that your Spirit would fill us, that the same Holy Spirit who inspired these words would illuminate them to us, that you would give us eyes to see, and ears to hear, and hearts to receive. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. I told you the last couple of weeks that the section of Luke that we're in, Luke 4 to 9, focuses on the identity of the Son of Man. So if the whole book is, the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 in particular answer the question, "Who is the Son of Man?" And so one approach this morning in thinking about the section of Luke that we're in is we could go through this passage and we could pull out all of the titles given to Jesus or the roles played by Jesus. And we could talk about who He is. We could say He is the teacher. He's called the master. He's called Lord. He's called healer. He's called God. He's called the Son of Man by Himself. He has even seen as the friend of sinners. And so we could go through and we could talk about those and see what they mean. And there would be value in that. Another approach is to back up and to step back and look at all of these stories together and to see Jesus in action. Instead of talking about who He is to just try to see Him in action, and sometimes you can get a better feel for a person, just talking about them if you just step back and see them in action. So I'll give you a few examples. I could talk to you about how great of basketball players, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are. And I could give you stats and information and how many All Star teams and this and that and the other. But if I really want you to see how great these guys were in their prime, you don't need to hear a lecture about it. You need to see them in action. Let me give you another example. I could tell you all afternoon long about how great the 2015 Dallas Cowboys are. I could just tell you up and down stats. They're the best. Only one loss. That was a fluke. I could tell you how great they are. But if you really want to see how great they are, you just go back, get your DVR out and watch. Last week when they destroyed the Super Bowl champions and you say, "Hey, these guys are for real. They're good. I get it now. I see it now." One more example. You may or may not know that I'm a Kansas J-Hawk fan, but I could tell you all day long about how great the Kansas J-Hawks are going to be in basketball this year. They're going to dominate the big 12. They're going to roll over everybody. They've won, it seems like 8,000 big 12 championships in a row. They're unbeatable. I could tell you on and on and on. You just need to watch them. You just need to see them in action and see it for yourself. Now, you know, and I know that we don't have a videotape of Jesus to put on and to see him in action. But when you look at these stories and you don't get caught on the trees, but you back up and you see the forest a little bit, you see Jesus in action. You see the Son of Man coming to seek and to save the lost. And you see him exemplifying these titles and playing these different roles. And so this morning, we're going to look at these four stories. We're going to think about Jesus. Who is the Son of Man who came to seek and to save the lost? We're going to work backwards through this passage. And I want you to see a couple of central truths about Jesus and about salvation. The first is this. From the story of Levi, Jesus, the Son of Man interacting with Levi, we are reminded that salvation involves repentance. Salvation involves repentance. I think most of us read the story of Jesus walking through the street and he sees Levi and he says, "Follow me." And we just assumed that that was the first time they ever laid eyes on each other. Jesus is just walking through the town. There's a guy. He says, "Follow me." The guys never met. Jesus doesn't know him, but maybe Jesus is just so magnetic in his personality. Maybe he's so charismatic in this call that Levi can't help but get up and follow him. And maybe, maybe there's an outside chance that that's really what's going on here. They've never laid eyes on each other. Don't know anything about him. And he hears this rabbi say, "Follow him." And he gets up and he follows. Maybe that's what's going on. I don't think that's what's going on. I think it's possible that these two guys had actually met. And even a step beyond possible, I think it's probable that Levi had at least heard about Jesus and knew who he was. Take your Bible and back up just a little bit. Look at Luke 4, verse 14. It says, "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee." That's the region that Levi lived in. And Luke tells us that a report about Jesus went out through all the surrounding country. The report has gone out. The gossip is spreading. Look at Luke 4, verse 37, it says, "Reports about him, Jesus, went out into every place in the surrounding region." Look at Luke 5, 15, a verse that we just read. It says, "Now even more, the report about him went abroad and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities." I think it's entirely possible that Levi had heard the report of Jesus. He had heard about the teachings of Jesus. He had heard about the miracles of Jesus. It's even possible because this geographic area is not huge that these guys had rubbed shoulders at some point, that they had met at some point, that they had have a conversation at some point. So we can debate that and we can try to figure that out. Here's what's not debatable. When Jesus looked at Levi, whether they had ever met or hadn't, whether he had heard of Jesus or he hadn't, and he said, "Follow me for Levi following Jesus involved repentance." And you need to understand that the son of man who came to seek and save the lost, to provide salvation, that in that salvation, repentance is always involved. If there is no repentance, there is no salvation. Salvation always results in repentance. And it's interesting to look at the repentance in Levi's life. Let me mention a couple of things about repentance you see in Levi. Number one, repentance is costly. It's costly. It is leaving one thing to follow Jesus. Whatever that thing is in your life, it's going to cost you. Luke says the exact same thing about Levi as he does. Peter, Andrew, James and John, look at Luke 5, 11, and you can draw a line over in your Bible to Luke 5, 28. Both times Luke tells us that they left everything and they followed Jesus. They left everything and they followed Jesus. Now, that was one thing for Peter and Andrew, James and John to do that. We know that these guys had some other family members who worked with them. We know that they were involved in the fishing business, that they owned boats and nets, and we know that later in the gospels they still have access to these things so they didn't just give them away. We know that as self-employed men, even though they're giving it up for a time to follow Jesus, at any point they could go back to it. In fact, after Jesus died on the cross they thought about going back to it. Let's go back and let's go fish. Let's go out there and do what we know how to do. So yes, those men left everything to follow Jesus, but for Peter, Andrew, James and John, there was always sort of a safety net. Well, you know, if this doesn't work out with Jesus, we just slide right back into the fishing business. That wasn't the case with Levi. Levi worked for Rome. And when Levi gets up and he leaves his post, he immediately says, "I will give this up and I will follow Jesus." He understands, "I'm never coming back to this job again. There's no do over. There's no, I'm sorry, can I have my job back?" That's it. You have betrayed your employer. You have walked away from him in the middle of the job and Levi knows leaving this is going to cost me. Repentance is always costly. But you don't need to feel sorry for Levi because what does he do in this passage? He leaves it and he throws a party. And that's the second thing you need to see about repentance. Repentance is joyful. Sometimes we talk about the cost of repentance and we just sort of give people a bad impression like, "You've got to give up all the good stuff. You've got to leave all the fun stuff. You've got to leave the good old days in the past and now you're following Jesus." The reality is repentance is going to cost you something, but Levi, when he paid that price, he wasn't sad. He wasn't torn. He wasn't conflicted. He wasn't looking for pity that, "Oh, feel so sorry for me that I had to leave this behind." He understood what he was getting in return and he leaves full of joy and the first thing he does is throw a giant party. He invites all his friends, all his buddies to come over and he says, "This is the greatest day of my life. Yes, it's cost me something, but look what I've got in return." His repentance is joyful. Number three, repentance is wise. It's wise. Of all the men who followed Jesus as apostles, we know there were many disciples, many interested people, but there was a core that Jesus called to be apostles, twelve of them. Levi was without question the most qualified to handle the money. He did that for a living. He handled money for a profession all day long, money in and out of his hands. That's what he did. He was a natural pick. If we were picking committee members, we would say, "Put that guy on the finance team." He knows money. He knows dollars and cents. He can add. He can subtract. He knows all of this. Jesus didn't pick him. He didn't ask him to be the treasure. He asked Judas to be the treasure. Now, this is a little bit of an assumption on my part, but here's what I think is going on. When you look at Levi and he's following Jesus and he's leaving this life behind, Jesus knows what he's leaving behind. And he knows that as a tax collector, more than likely, he earned his reputation as a liar and a cheater, as a thief. And Jesus understands, "Yes, he's left that to follow me, but I'm not going to tempt him with it. I'm not going to put him in a position immediately where he's tempted to slide right back into his own ways. Repentance is costly. It's joyful and it's also wise. When you think about repentance in your life, it may look different than Levi's, but understand that whatever it is that you're leaving behind, those people, those situations, those influences have the power to drag you backwards. And Jesus doesn't expect you to just be Superman and to stay in that environment or to stay with those people or to face that temptation every day. He's saying, "Remove yourself from it." And he calls Levi the money man to follow him and he says, "Levi, you're not in charge of the money. I don't want this to be an issue in your life, so you repent of it and we're going to leave it in the past." Repentance, it's costly, it's joyful, and it's wise. What about the story before that, the cripple man? Second idea is this, from the story of the cripple man, the paralyzed man, we are reminded that salvation involves forgiveness. Salvation involves forgiveness. Word about Jesus is spreading. We read the verses in Luke. The report is going out. When you read the story about this man being led in the roof, when you read it in the Gospel of Mark, Mark says that it happened in Capernaum in somebody's home in Capernaum. So we know that Jesus has been preaching there. He's been teaching there. He's been healing. In fact, at one point, all of the people who were sick came and he healed them in Capernaum. He's in Capernaum in a home teaching and Luke says that the power of God was on him to what? To heal. The power of God is on him to heal. And here comes the guy. They drop him down. Everybody knows what's coming next. They've seen it happen time after time, after time, after time in Capernaum. They drop the guy down. Jesus looks at him in the eyeballs. Everybody is waiting for Jesus to tell the man to get up. And instead Jesus says what? Your sins are forgiven. This was not on anybody's radar. No one in the room saw this coming. This was totally out of left field. The man on the bat did not see it coming. His buddies up on the roof did not see it coming. The teachers and the Pharisees and the folks who had come from Jerusalem who were listening to him in the home, they never saw it coming. The homeowner, the disciples, no one saw it coming. Everyone is waiting for Jesus to say would you get up and walk off so I can finish my lesson. And instead Jesus says your sins are forgiven you. This is the last thing they expected. This is like you go to the oil show coming up and you're walking through. And there's Al Gore sitting at a booth talking about how great oil is. You walk in and you say what? Are you kidding me? Yeah, let's drill for oil. Let's drill for oil. This is not what I expected. This is like if you were to go to a Texas Rangers baseball game and they actually won. You say I never saw that coming. I didn't expect it. I didn't know that could happen. The Rangers can win. Who knew? They dropped the guy in. Jesus, heal the guy. We have seen you heal hundreds of people in this very city. And Jesus says your sins are forgiven. And everyone is just baffled. And Luke tells us that the teachers, the Pharisees who are sitting there, the wheels start turning. Not only are they shocked, but they're outraged because they understand that Jesus has just forgiven the sins of somebody that he doesn't even know, a stranger. That's something only God can do. And so immediately in their heads they're saying to themselves, that's blasphemy. You can't do what only God can do. If you say that you can do what only God can do, then you're claiming to be God. And Jesus knows exactly where their minds have gone. He knows exactly what they're thinking about. And so he uses this Jewish form of argument. And he says to them, look, I realize that anybody can say your sins are forgiven. And how do you know? Can you take a blood test for that? Can you? How do you know if they're forgiven or not forgiven? Anybody can say that. He says, but if I was to tell this man to get up and he actually got up, then you would know that my word has some power. And so Luke says he looks, after explaining this, he looks to the man lying down and he says, get up, take that mat and go home. And without saying a word, what he's saying to everyone else in the room is, I am God in human flesh. And I do have authority to forgive sins. Look what he says. Luke chapter 5, look down in verse 24, that you may know that the son of man, and underline that title, the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. This is the first time in the gospel of Luke that Jesus calls himself the son of man. And Luke does not write things like this down haphazardly. There are no coincidences when you read something like this in the gospel of Luke. And if you like to draw on your Bible, you just ought to circle that title, son of man, draw a little line out to the margin and write Luke 19, 10. The son of man came to seek and to save the lost. And he did that how? By dying on the cross and the place of sinners. And because he did that, Jesus says the son of man does in fact have authority on earth to forgive sins. We'll talk more about that in a minute. Story number 3, moving backwards, the story of the leper. When you look at this story of the leper, you're reminded that salvation results in worship. Salvation results in worship. And if worship is not a regular part of your life, then you need to question whether or not salvation has come to your heart. Because salvation always results in worship. We read about the leper. He had lived in isolation. We don't know for how long, but we know that as a leper, he was not allowed in the general population. He could not be in town among his family, among his friends at work. He had to live on his own. And he comes to Jesus and he says to Jesus, "Jesus, I know that if you will, if you desire, if it's your plan, you can heal me." And Jesus says, "In fact, it is." And he heals him. Now, if you're this man and you have spent time months, years, decades, as a social outcast. And Jesus heals you of the thing that has kept you separated from general life. I don't know about you, but I'd have a long list of things I was ready to do. I'd say, "I'm ready to go hug my kids. I'm ready to go see my wife. I'm ready to go talk to my parents. I'm ready to go to the synagogue. I'm ready to go to church. I'm ready to walk through the market without yelling "leper" every time I take a step. I'm ready to go to my favorite restaurant and eat my favorite food. I have all these things I wanted to do. And Jesus says, "Here's the first thing that you need to do. You go to the temple and you offer the sacrifices prescribed in the law." Now, in our brains, we read that. We move right on. But look at this map. Luke's told us that this is taking place in Capernaum, on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. The temple is in Jerusalem. Jesus heals the man in Capernaum. We know he's dying to see his family, to be reunited, to get back into life as normal. And Jesus says, "The first thing you need to do is take a road trip. You need to hoof at 75 miles down south to Jerusalem. And when you're there, you need to go to the temple. You need to offer the sacrifices prescribed in the law and you need to worship." Jesus is saying, "Look, I have sought you and I have saved you. And the first thing you need to do is respond to me in worship. I hope and I pray that you never take lightly what we do in this room on Sunday mornings when we gather together corporately to worship." Another side effect of this man being a leper is that he would not have been allowed in or near the temple. He was ceremonially unclean. He wouldn't have been allowed to worship. He wouldn't allow to participate in the corporate aspect of praising God in Jerusalem. Now Jesus says you need to go back to that and that's your top priority. Never think lightly of the privilege and the opportunity to gather with believers corporately to worship. Salvation always results in worship. The last idea is this, from the story of Simon Peter, where reminded that salvation results in service, in service. Great story about Jesus and Peter and the boat and the fish and all of the miraculous catch. And at the end of the story, Jesus is standing in the boat and Peter is down on his face in the boat and Peter is asking Jesus to leave him. He's confessing his sin to Jesus. He's calling Jesus God Lord and he is begging Jesus to leave. It's ironic because not too much before this, Jesus was in Capernaum and he did a bunch of miracles and everybody got really excited and they started thinking of all the ways that they could use and manipulate Jesus and Luke tells us they begged Jesus. Please don't go. They wanted to prevent him from leaving and Jesus said no, I have work to do in other places and he left. They begged him to stay and he left. Now you have Peter begging Jesus to leave and he stays. And he says Peter in this moment, now that you're finally on your face, confessing your sin and asking me the holy one to leave, now you're ready to serve. Up to this point you're not ready. Now you're ready. You see me for who I am. You see you for who you are, totally unworthy and now you're ready. And Peter from now on you're not going to be catching fish but you're going to be catching men. Can I tell you a great truth in this passage? I don't want you to miss. What we're doing here in church, this is the one organization on planet earth where your membership and your service depend on your unworthiness. It's the only one. I thought this week about when our family first moved to Kingfisher and Kingfisher is a small town in Oklahoma and they explained some things to me up front moving there. They said you will go to all of the football games. You will be involved in the community and it would be a really great idea if you would be part of some sort of civic organization. I said well I've never been a part of a civic organization in my life but I had a buddy who was in rotary so here you go. There's my rotary pen, rotary international. Got it out of the package this week so I could show it to you this morning. And I don't know if you know much about rotary but basically it is an organization that has members who serve. It sounds like the church, organization, members and non-members and they encourage their members to serve. If you want to get one of these nice little pens right here, you've got to prove your worthiness to the club and they look at all sorts of stupid stuff, education and professional career and blah blah blah blah and all this stuff and then they have a vote. They get together and they vote. You're in, you're out. And if they think you are worthy to be in rotary, you're in. And then once you're in they encourage you to serve. We're the exact opposite of that. If you're coming with a resume you can go somewhere else. If you're coming to me or to Corey or your Sunday school teacher or elder saying hey, I am here and it's your lucky day because I have so much to offer and then this it is, you missed it. Peter finally got it when he's on his face confessing his sin, begging Jesus to walk away. And Jesus says in that moment and only when you get to that moment are you ready to sign up with me and are you ready to serve. Service here, membership here is not based on you or your worthiness. It is based on your unworthiness and you acknowledging that and saying I don't have anything to offer you, but Jesus sought me. Jesus saved me and now I'm here. Do with me what you will. This morning if you're a follower of Jesus, if you have come to the point in your life where you have turned from your sins and trusted in Jesus, you have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I want you to understand that Jesus has authority to forgive sins past, present, future. He really has that authority and he is calling you to repentance not just one time when you become a Christian, but every day of your life he is calling you to a lifestyle of repentance and he is calling you and expecting you and waiting for you to respond in worship. He's not asking for you to pay him back. He's not asking for you to become worthy or work your way into the job. He's saying I know you're unworthy. That's why I came to seek you and to save you. I've forgiven your sins and what I want you to do in response is worship. And what I'm calling you to in response is service. If you're here this morning and you do not know Jesus, you would say I'm not a Christian. I'm not a follower of Jesus. I'm not a part of a church. I don't understand this. This is new. This is different. I've never experienced this. I don't have this hope in my life. Jesus is calling you to the exact same thing. Luke is telling you this morning that the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. And he saved you at the cross where he died your death. And because he died your death, he's saying to you in Luke 5, the Son of Man who came to seek you and save you has full authority to forgive your sins, past, present and future. He's not asking you to become worthy. He's not waiting on you to become worthy. He is calling you to repentance, not to give up the good stuff so that you have to be bored following Jesus forever, but that you do give up the stuff that's holding you back so that you can follow Jesus in joy, that you can respond to him in worship and respond to him in service. I want to pray for you this morning. As you think about this passage, as you think about Jesus who came to seek us and to save us, as we think about worship, as we think about service, Father, we are grateful for your Word. And we believe that it's true. And we thank you for the earth's shattering reality that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man came to this place of his own volition to seek us who were lost and to save us who were lost. We confess our sin like Peter. We admit and acknowledge our unworthiness. Father, we have nothing on our spiritual resume to offer you. And we find our hope not in our goodness, but in Jesus in his authority to forgive our sins. Father, we want to be people at a manual who respond to you with humble service and humble worship. So Lord, as we take a few moments to sing, that's our heart. That we yield ourselves to you trusting in your forgiveness, asking you to grant us repentance and just praising you and worshiping you and glorifying you. Father, we do pray for those who are here, who have never entered into a genuine relationship with Jesus and Father pray that they would do it today, that they would come to the front as we sing, that they would grab somebody after the service, that they would not leave this place today without entering into a saving, worshiping relationship with Jesus. Father, be honored as we sing, we pray that your spirit would come to fill us, to convict us, to strengthen us, and we pray in your name, amen. Stand up and we'll sing.