Luke, the fifth chapter, and last week we've seen the healing of the man who had palsy. We've seen some great acts of faith. Jesus, of course, and faith in Him produces great acts. produces works, faith produces works. And today we're going to see Jesus. Let's look at verse 27, Luke 5, 27 through 32. Jesus calls Levi. Jesus calls Levi, or it's Matthew, the same person, Levi, Matthew. Luke 5, verse 27, and after these things, after the healing of the man of palsy and all that went forth there, and after these things, he went forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom, and he said unto him, Follow me. And he left all and rose up and followed him, and Levi made a great feast in his own house, and there was a great company of publicans and others that sat down with him. But the scribes and the Pharisees murmured against the disciples, saying, Why do you eat with the publicans and sinners? And Jesus answered and said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Verse 32, And I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So Jesus leaves there and he carries on with his mission, so to speak. And he comes to a man named Levi sitting at the receipt of customs. Again, this is Matthew. If you read in the book of Matthew, the same scenario goes on there. But he's sitting at the receipt of customs. And what is he? Of course, he's a publican, and simply a publican is a tax gatherer. And he's sitting at this seat of customs, and what I read, even back then, they had places where at bridges or at river crossings, they would make houses or booths for the publicans, and they would sit there and they would collect tolls. You cross my bridge, you have to pay a toll. You cross the river there, you have to pay a toll. So they would have these booths or houses set up for them, and this is where he finds Levi, and he says to him, Out of all those that are sitting there at this custom, at all those booths, those houses, he goes to Levi's booth and he says, follow me. And what does Levi do? Of course, in Levi he left all and rose up and followed him. Now, think about this as this call that would make a man just up and leave it all and go and follow Jesus. So, this call was a special call. This was a call of one that was particularly just to him. He didn't call nobody else there, but he went, he found Levi, and he addressed him to follow me. And Levi, he did. He left all. His job, his wealth, he left it all. And he followed him. Now think about that also. Just imagine if someone would walk up to you in your job today and say, follow me. Would you just jump up and say, I'm out of here. I'm quitting. I'm following this guy. You know, I'm thinking, no, I'm not just some Joe off the road comes up and tells me that. Wait a minute now. What's going on here? I'm going to be questionable. But Levi, he didn't even question because he heard the master's voice. It wasn't just a regular Joe off the road. This was God in the flesh who come and has called him to be a disciple. He left it all. He rose up and he followed him. Now, Levi, verse 29, he makes a great feast in his own house for the Lord. And I think this was for the Lord. But in there, there was a great company of publicans and others sat down with him. So he makes this great feast. or the Lord. Now, being a publican, he'd have money to do that. He'd be able to do that. So he makes this feast, and many of his friends, probably his old friends, were going to be old friends, they were coming also to this feast. Now, of course, he would have his conversation or his manner of life with them, as part of them. He was just like them, a publican. What did the Jews think of publicans? They didn't respect them at all. Why? Well, because one thing, they were tax collectors, they didn't like tax collectors. Secondly, they lived very immoral lives and they were very, very sinful people. But now Jesus is here, he's made a great feast, there's many publicans there and sinners came, Matthew says. And the next verse says that the Pharisees recognized this. So he's there eating with them. So this causes a problem, supposedly, with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the scribes, the doctors, whatever, the lawyers, whatever you want to call them. So what do they do in verse thirty? That their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? Why are you with these type of people if you are supposedly who you say you are? And if you're supposedly doing the work of God, why are you associating with these publicans and these sinners, these immoral people who rob the people, who live lifestyles of immorality? Why are you even associating with them? I mean, you're claiming to be holy, and yet you're with the wicked? So they begin to murmur against Jesus and his disciples, and they question. And of course, Jesus knows that they are questioning. And he gives them, he just gives them an example. He gives them an example, verse 31, and Jesus answered and said unto them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Now, if you go to a physician, if you go to a doctor's office today, who, what kind of people do you meet in that doctor's office? You meet sick people. That's what a doctor does. He treats sick physicians. They say, they that are whole, they don't go to the doctor, do they? They're not there. They're not associating with that physician. But they that are sick, the people that are sick, are around the doctor. The doctor interacts with those people. He does that. Now, of course, the Jews thinking themselves to be whole, righteous, They did not want to have anything to do with the sinner. But Jesus says, I came not to call the righteous. Now, you claiming to be righteous. So are you going to listen to me? Do you have need of me? Do you think you have need of me? Well, no, they didn't think they had need of Jesus. They were there to accuse him, and they've been trying to accuse him, to find him up in some falsehood so they can discredit him. I've come not to call the righteous. You're not going to listen. You call yourself righteous, but actually you aren't. But you're not going to listen to me or pay respect to me. But I've called sinners to repentance. Jesus went to the people that needed him. He was like the doctor. The sick were coming to the doctor. He was making house calls. He went to Levi. He went and found Levi, and he called him. He was calling sinners to repentance, to a change of mind, to a change of lifestyle. They were no longer going to be carried on in their ways of life. Levi had prepared this tremendous feast for Jesus, but who else was there? There were other sinners. I think Levi wanted his friends to have the same thing he had. So, he invites them also. He invites what? The scribes and the Pharisees? No, the other publicans, the other sinners. They needed the help that he got from Jesus. So, they were invited also to this. So, they could, the Lord could save them. They could have a change of mind. They could have a change of heart. Simply, Jesus, he tells them there, tells the scribes and the Pharisees, hey, the Messiah that you look for, I'm not. I'm not the one that's going to come and is going to run the Romans out and set up my kingdom here and just deal with people like you who think you're holy but aren't. But I've come to do what my Father has ordered me to do. I've come to do that. Jesus came to this earth for a purpose. He came to this earth with a mission. And that's basically what he's telling the scribes and the Pharisees here. Those that are holy, not the physician, but those that are sick. I've come. To be the physician for the sick. I've come to be him. Our Lord and Savior had this job. Had this mission. Even before he was born. In the book of Matthew, in the first chapter in verse 21, when the angel was talking to Joseph. He said to Joseph about Mary that she would bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For what? He shall save his people from their sins. So even before Jesus was born, he had a mission. He had a purpose for his coming, and that was that he was going to save his people from their sins. Levi was one of his people. And he went and sought him out amongst all the publicans there. And he called him. He called him. Even as a child, as Jesus began to grow up, he had a job to do. And when he was at the temple in Jerusalem and his parents went back And he stayed there, and then they come and found him. You know the whole story. And they come and found him, and they're worried. Why did you do this? And Jesus, even as a child in Luke 2, 49, he says, How is it you sought me? Wished ye not that I must be about my father's business? So before he was born, he had a mission. And even as a child, he understood that his job was not what the people supposed him to be, but that he needed to be about his father's business. And he began his ministry, and after he just began his ministry, he went into the temple and they let him to read. It was his custom to do so. And he read, and he read the passages in Luke 4 and 18. He read these passages from the Old Testament. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, this is Jesus speaking, is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recover the sights of the blind, and to set liberty to them that are bruised. And in verse 19, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. This was his mission, and in verse 21 he goes on to say, this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. What he had just read in the Old Testament was happening that day through him. His ministry had begun. He was going to preach the gospel. He was going to share the good news. So, he had a mission, and this is what he's telling the scribes and the Pharisees there. The sick need me, not those that are whole, but the sick need me. He had this mission in the book of Luke, in the nineteenth chapter, in verse ten. Luke, nineteen, ten. Very clearly, his mission, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Two parts there. And to save, he sought out Levi. He went to Levi. Was Levi coming to him? Was Levi looking for Jesus? He wasn't. But he came to him and he said in verse 27, follow me, follow me. Was Zacchaeus looking for Jesus that he could follow him? No. Jesus went to him and looked up in the tree and said, Zacchaeus, And later, verse 19, Luke 19, you can read the whole story. He said, The day of salvation has come to this house, talking about Zacchaeus, for as much as he also is the son of Abraham. He's one of his people. Zacchaeus was one of his people. Zacchaeus wasn't seeking him, but Jesus sought him out. The woman of the well in John, the fourth chapter, was she looking for Jesus at midday when she went to draw water? No, but Jesus said, I have much needs to go through Samaria. He went to where those Jews would ever go. They hated Samaritans. They would go all the way around the nation of Samaria to avoid them. But Jesus went through Samaria because he had a divine appointment with this woman at the well. He sought her out. He was what? Seeking. Seeking. He sought her out. And you know what? We today the same way. He sought us out. We wasn't seeking, either. We wasn't wanting to be one of his disciples. In the book of Romans, in the third chapter, and beginning at verse ten, it gives you a list of the condition of man apart from God. And one of those conditions, we'll just start at verse ten. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, and there is none that seeketh after God. Verse eleven. None that seeks after God. We were like the woman of the well. We were like Zacchaeus. We were like Levi. We were all not seeking him, but yet he sought us. He sought us. He come to us because we weren't coming to him. Why wasn't we coming to him? In Romans, the eighth chapter, in verse seven, it says, Because the called on mine or the worldly mind is enmity. or hatreds against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." We wasn't seeking after him. We didn't want to have anything to do with him. But yet, he sought us. If you're a sage here today, he sought you, like Levi. He sought you out. But what's the second part of that mission? He not only seeks. He does not just come and say, well, here I am, and then box away from it, but he also saves. He not only seeks, but then he saves. Now, I think there's a great misunderstanding to this word saved today, because a lot of people don't, including myself at one time in my life, didn't realize what the word saved mean. Didn't understand it. I thought I did. But I thought it was just something that could be temporary. But if you look at the word save, the word save means to deliver or protect, heal, preserve, be made whole. I think about, does that sound like a temporary condition? To deliver or protect, heal, preserve, be made whole. That's not a temporary condition. And this is the salvation that Jesus brings. Now, the salvation that you may get from a man is temporary. It ain't salvation. It's not true. But the salvation that Jesus brings when he seeks you is a salvation that is not temporary. So what did he tell Levi? He found him, he sought him, but then he said, follow me. He called him. He called him. He called him out of his former lifestyle. And what did he do? He left all. He left it all and he followed Jesus. He followed him. Jesus. Now who was this? This was Levi. A publican. An old sinner. Somebody that the Jews wouldn't even look upon. They didn't want to have any respect to or watch or look upon or be near. But Jesus went to him, called him, and he showed him great grace and great mercy. He showed it to Levi. Ephesians, the second chapter, we're all familiar with these verses. In verse 8, Ephesians 2 and 8, for by grace are you saved through faith. and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, least any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. For you are saved," what is the second part of his mission? He's going to save. He's going to seek, but then he was going to save. And what does it say here? For by grace are you saved through faith. Not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works least any man should boast. Levi couldn't do anything. Levi didn't want to do anything. Zacchaeus couldn't do anything. The woman at the well couldn't do anything. You and I could not do anything within ourselves to bring about salvation. We would have died in our sins willingly if God hadn't called, hadn't come to us. hadn't sought us and hadn't saved us. Why? Because we were dead. We were dead. In the book of Ephesians, he told the church at Ephesus in the second chapter The latter part of the first verse, it says, who are dead, talking to the church of Ephesus, who are dead in trespasses and sins, where in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of air and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We were dead until Jesus came and intervened. The next verse, what does the next verse say? But God. But when God intervenes in their life, but when God calls, when Jesus called Levi, when Jesus called him, he quickened him. He made him the first part of the Ephesians, it says, And you have he quickened, or he has made you alive. You were like this church of Ephesus, but he's quickened you by the mercy that God has given you. He saved you. He's called you out of that. And he has saved you. Have to be called. In the book of Acts, in the second chapter, on the day of Pentecost, Peter preached a tremendous message there. And at the end of that message, he says in verse thirty-nine, for the promises unto you and to your children, talking to the people that were there, and to all that are far off, that's you and me, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. We don't do it on our own. We don't want to do it on our own. We like living in our sins, but when he calls, he what? He makes us alive, Ephesians 2.1 says. He made you alive. He quickens you. He makes you alive. What is he used to do that? In James, the first chapter in verse 18, James 1.18, it says, of his own will beget he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Of his own will. of God's own will, he beget us, and he did that with the word of truth. He told the church of Corinth in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, beginning at verse one, he told them, he says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which you are all saved. If you keep in memory what I preach into you, unless you have believed in vain, for I delivered into you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and he was buried and he arose again the third day, according to the scriptures. How was the church there at Corinth saved? By the preaching of the gospel. What was Jesus's mission? Preach the gospel. He was to seek and to save and to tell people about himself that he was going to die and he was going to arose. And that's why we're here today, to celebrate that resurrection of our Lord and Savior. He arose. Our sins that he paid for, he paid for completely and fully. God accepted his sacrifice and he arose from the dead. He seeks Levi, he seeks the woman at the well, Zacchaeus, and if you're saved today, he sought you and he saves you. And he saves you forever. He saves you forever. Look at Hebrews, the seventh chapter in verse twenty-five. It says, Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost. that come unto God by him, seeing why that he ever liveth to make intercession for them." He's a Savior, one that saves fully and completely. And he's sitting on the right hand of the Father, making intercession for his children today. He saves forever. The book of John in the tenth chapter. John 10, 14, I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep. What was his mission? Even before he was born, he was going to save his people from their sins. He knows his people. He knows his sheep. He knows where to look for them, and he finds He says, I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep, and I am known of mine, as the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep, and other sheep I have, that's you and I, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and they shall be one fold and one shepherd." He's going to call his people. He will call them. Verse 27, my sheep what? Hear my voice, and I know them. And what do they do? What is their response? What was Levi's response when Jesus said, follow me? He followed. My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father, which gave them me, is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. So, he's going to call. He has a mission to seek and to save his people. And he will fulfill that mission. John 6, 37. John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Because of Jesus' resurrection, we have a hope of a resurrection also. We will resurrect, too, because he resurrected. We have that hope. As Jesus sought Levi, as Jesus called him, as Jesus made him alive, as Jesus saved him, he followed. No ifs, or ands, or buts. He followed. He was never the same after that, never the same. And what did he do? He invited others to Jesus also. And that's the same with you and I today. If you're saved today, he sought you, he called you, he saved you, he made you alive and he saved you and you'll never be the same again. And we need to invite other people to Jesus too. We need to do that. OK, we're going to have to quit. All right. Thank you for your attention.