October 27, 2002                          

Jesus Continues to Search for Disciples

Text: Mark 2: 13-17

Thesis:  Jesus is always looking for followers who are willing to become disciples.

I. “Jesus saw Levi son of Alpaeus sitting at the tax collectors booth.”(vs14)

            A. Jesus “saw” Levi through the eye of God’s love.

                        37"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. (Matthew 23:37)

            B. Jesus “saw” the eternal value of Levi.

                        1. Levi was made in the image of God.

                        2. Levi was the only person needed for Christ to have died on the cross.

            C. Jesus “saw” the God given potential locked up within Levi.

                        DISCIPLE (Gr. mathetes, a learner). A pupil of a teacher--like the disciples of John the Baptist (Matt 9:14), the Pharisees (22:16), and Moses (John 9:28). Usually, however, it refers to the adherents of Jesus--the twelve apostles (e.g., Matt 10:1; 11:1) or believers in general (Acts 6:1-2, 7; 9:36). Followers of Jesus were not called "Christians" until the founding of the church at Antioch (11:26).[1]

II. Jesus defied popular opinion by associating with Levi.(15-16)

            A. The religious authorities branded Levi a sinner.

            B. The common crowd detested tax collectors.

                        1. Jesus befriended the outcast do we?

III. Jesus introduced a new philosophy of ministry.(vs17)

            A. “Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost” Luke 19:10

            17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." [2]

                B. The “least of them” are synonymous with Jesus.

            42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."(Matthew 25)