Truly Set Apart
Luke 5:27-39 (part 1) ·March 19, 2023· Joel Passmore
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We are in a sermon series on the book of Luke, and we're in chapter 5 now. Things have really gotten going with Jesus and his ministry. Jesus is now taking center stage in the book of Luke. And every time, if you've noticed, every time he reveals more about himself, it stirs up a little bit more controversy, a little bit more opposition. If you remember a few weeks ago, he preached a sermon in his hometown, and he almost got killed because of what he said, almost got thrown off a cliff.
And then just last week, he healed someone, and then he forgave them of their sins, and people started grumbling and saying, what? How dare he do something like that? So today, we are going to see the controversy continue. Now, a few years ago, there was something that went viral. Maybe about eight years ago, there was something that went viral. It was a picture of a dress. You guys remember this? It looked like, well, people thought it was two different things, two different colors.
Either it was black, either it was white and gold, or it was black and blue, right? I still can't see it as black and blue. I don't know if anybody else can. Oh, the light, the light, okay. It's interesting how when I saw it on my screen, once again, it looked like it was white and gold. But people were at each other's throats about this. That was simpler times, right? Simpler times. I would rather be arguing about that than the kind of things that we oftentimes argue about now.
But anyway, this is just a recent example of you see it one way or the other. There's a couple of other well-known pictures. Put those up, Grayson. That you can either see them as one thing or the other. You've probably seen these before. Is it a rabbit? Is it a duck? Or there's two different women in this picture here. Now, the difference between these is that, unlike the dress, you can point to things to people. And you can say, see, this is the ears of the rabbit or, see, this is the nose of the woman or something like that.
And you can help someone see things from a different perspective. But at first, we all kind of see one thing here and not the other. And we might need someone's help to see it differently.
Perspective matters on something that you're looking at. Perspective matters. In today's text, people see what Jesus is doing and, again, they object. They have criticisms. They have complaints. Why are you doing this? Jesus gives them answers, but he really is challenging them to look at things from a different point of view. Look at things differently. Look at things from my point of view, Jesus says. Not your own point of view. Look at things differently, and then you will understand why it is I'm doing what I'm doing.
So let's read the passage, Luke 5. Let's see if we can, by the Spirit's help, have a new perspective on something today. A new perspective on what it means to be set apart. Because that's what someone's tripping up over here. They think being set apart means this. And Jesus says, no, no. Being set apart means this. Luke 5, starting in verse 27. This is God's word for us today. Let's pay attention to it. This is God speaking to us. After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at a 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 him. And the Pharisees and their 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 for those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
And they said to him, the disciples of John fast often and offer prayers. And so do the disciples of the Pharisees. But yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them, can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them. And they will fast in those days. He also told them a parable. No one tears a piece from a garment and puts it in an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old.
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled. And the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new. For he says the old is good. Pray with me. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the ministry of your spirit in us that we can read it and understand it. Be changed by it. So that we can have our minds refreshed.
Reoriented. Around new truths. Truths that are from you. Truths that counter the lies that we believe. And thank you for the ministry in our hearts. That you can change us. Warm our hearts. Make them alive again. So that we can love you more. And follow you. Jesus, will you do that work among us today by your spirit. Through your word. Jesus, we pray this in your name.
Okay, so this passage all goes together. Everything I just read. That parable at the end. And it relates to both of the things that happen here. Both the objection about the fellowship that Jesus has with the tax collectors and sinners. And about the fact that they are eating and drinking at all and not fasting. Those parables about the new and the old. That has to do with everything here. But I'm going to preach it in two sermons. So today is on the first section of the passage.
Verses 27 through 32. So just that section. Next week I'll preach on the section after that. 33 and beyond. So here's the title today. Truly set apart. Truly set apart. The main point is this. The grace of Jesus brings in outcasts and gives them purpose. The grace of Jesus brings in outcasts and gives them purpose. So let's start with the calling of a crook. Levi. Otherwise known as Matthew. Jesus is walking and he sees a tax collector sitting at a tax booth.
In order to get the impact of this passage, we really need to understand a little bit about tax collection in the ancient Near East. I know that's a really thrilling topic. But it's tax season. So that's my tie-in to tax season. The region of Palestine where this is all happening, it was under the control of the Roman Empire. You may already know that. So they were controlled by the Roman Empire. Like today, there were all kinds of taxes in the Roman Empire.
There was a tax on being a citizen. There was a tax on being a landowner. There was taxes on buying and selling goods. There were taxes on transporting goods from one region to another. Historians think that people were taxed 20% to 30% of their income, to give you some idea. Unlike today, different than today, collecting these taxes was done by, let's just call them independent contractors. People would bid for and would pay for the right to collect taxes.
In an area, this would go to, usually to a big old area, to a wealthy Roman citizen, and they would be called a publican. They would then hire a staff, staff that would bid for the right to do that, to be a head tax collector for maybe a smaller region. A head tax collector would then bring in people who were the ordinary tax collectors sitting at the booths like Levi. Zacchaeus, if you think of him in the Bible, he was a head tax collector. So, in charge of many, many people who collected taxes.
Levi was a lowly booth attendant, right? The lowest tax collector. Now, none of these people were paid by the Roman government. There was no salary. They paid themselves by collecting more than they were required to collect. How much more? It depended on how much money they wanted to make. Lower level tax collectors would say, this is what you owe. And then they would keep a portion of that. Once they collected everything that they wanted to collect, that they had to collect, that they were obligated to collect, they would come, the head tax collector, and bring in all their proceeds.
The head tax collector would say, thank you very much. Would keep a portion for himself or herself, if there were such a thing. And then they would take this and they would give it to the publican. The publican would take a share and then would give it to the government. And on and on and on it would go. So, at every level, they were taking a little bit from themselves. If it sounds like a pyramid scheme, it's because it is basically a pyramid scheme.
You can see how easily corruption happened in this. The whole system was built on corruption. No one was paid by anyone above them. They were paid by people below them. That's how corruption happens. So, you would just demand more. You're a tax collector, you want to raise, you want to buy a bigger house, you want to add on to your house, you want to buy a horse, you want to buy a donkey, you want to buy a camel. You just charge people more money.
People couldn't look up on their phones to see, like, how much money do I actually owe? Wait a minute, you're overcharging me. All they had was the word of the tax collector sitting in front of them, usually with a centurion right at their side, saying, this is what you owe. Now, pay it.
All this meant, tax collectors were absolutely despised. They were hated. Nobody liked them. Not even a little bit. They were absolutely hated. Their whole profession was built on corruption. It was built on extorting people. It was built on demanding more than they actually owed. They were regarded the same as thieves because they actually were thieves. If a Jewish person became a tax collector, this was grounds for being kicked out of the local synagogue.
You would be excommunicated from the synagogue. You would be ostracized by your friends and family. You would be totally by yourself. You'd be rich, but you would be completely isolated, despised by everyone around you. You'd still be living there because you have to collect taxes from these people. But you would be completely alone. If people saw you walking down the street, they would cross the street so they wouldn't have to talk to you.
Not only were you extorting and stealing from your own people, if you were a Jewish tax collector, you were an agent of the occupying Roman Empire. So you were a traitor, too. There's nothing about this that made people like you. When I was in school, there was a role called a hall monitor. This was a kid that was asked to stand in the hallway and say to his peers, he or she was representing the faculty, say, slow down. Get to class. Where are your books?
Do they still have hall monitors, kids? Yeah, they do a little bit. Are these kids popular, kids? No? I mean, I can't imagine how anybody likes a hall monitor because you're representing the authorities right there, right? Telling all your peers to stop doing this and that. That's maybe the best equivalent to think about how you feel about a hall monitor. It's probably what people felt about tax collectors if you're a student today. If you're an adult, I want you to imagine a cross between a mobster and an IRS agent.
Suppose that a mobster and an IRS agent were the same person. Walking around to businesses, to people, shaking them down for money, making demands of them. This is what you owe. Gosh, it sure is a nice shop that you have. It'd be a shame if anything happened to it. But you're doing so as an agent, basically a hired agent of the government. You have all the forces of the government behind you. Think how hated those people would be. That's Levi, sitting at his tax booth, waiting for his next customer.
That's why what happens here is so shocking. Nobody wants anything to do with Levi, except for Jesus. They would have avoided him. Jesus sees him. The Greek word for see there is actually more like observed. Jesus looked at him, picked him out, thought about him, considered him, so that what he does next is deliberate. He didn't just bump into Levi. He saw Levi from a distance, and he said, I'm going after that guy. Jesus said to him, follow me. Levi would not, just to put it in the most mild terms, Levi would not have been a popular addition to Jesus' band of disciples.
Everyone else that was following him, men and women alike, would have groaned to see Jesus walk up to Levi and say, follow me. They'd be like, oh, are you kidding me? That guy, he's a liability, but not to Jesus, so he calls him. And lo and behold, Levi responds. Leaving everything, he rose and he followed him. Can you imagine Levi standing up immediately from his tax booth? All of his ill-gotten gains stacked up there. He leaves it. All of the records, all of his hard work, his whole career, he leaves it.
A fisherman leaving could always go back if things didn't work out with Jesus. If he leaves, someone's going to take that position real quick, because you could get rich. So Levi is leaving the only profession he has. He's not going to escape the stigma of being a tax collector if things don't work out with Jesus. This is really an all-in bet for Levi. He's pushing all of the chips forward and saying, I'm with you, Jesus.
The first thing Levi does is he hosts a dinner party for Jesus. In this culture, to host someone, to throw a party, it is an extravagant thing. It's nice to us, you know, this is something we can relate to. We all know that it's nice to be invited in. It's nice to have people in your home. It is something to a whole different level in the ancient Near East. This is an extravagant thing that Levi does. It's an extravagant show of respect, of gratitude, generosity, and honor, and it's all being directed towards Jesus.
He's throwing the party for Jesus. And look at who he invites. His business associates, right? And this makes sense because he probably didn't have any friends. No friends. His family didn't want anything to do with him. They might have disowned him. His work colleagues are the only relationships he's got. And he invites them. He brings them in. Although he's quitting, he says, you know what, come to my house. Let's eat together. There's someone that I want you to meet.
So here they are together. Folks, everyone in the room is despised in their communities. Hated. People who have robbed. People who have extorted. People who have cheated their neighbors. Gathered around the table with Jesus. When Jesus accepted this invitation, it spoke volumes about who he wanted to spend time with. And the Pharisees knew it. But the Pharisees and the scribes, they know. Because you don't come to a dinner party in this culture without giving some level of social approval to the people that invite you.
Especially a noted and celebrated rabbi like Jesus was at this time. Everyone considered him to be a well-renowned teacher. For him to come in, people are like, maybe we ought to reconsider those task collectors. That's the kind of prestige that Jesus is bringing into the room.
Now, just like we talked about the task collectors, we have to talk about the Pharisees. Because I know that some of you all might not know who the Pharisees are. The Pharisees, this was not an official role. This was a group of laymen in the community that had a lot of influence. A lot of influence for social life. A lot of influence on religious life. The group of Pharisees emerged sometime after the Babylonian exile. During an event called the Maccabean Revolt in 160 BC, 160 years before Jesus, they were instrumental in resisting the influence of the empire that tried to get the Jewish people to stop their laws, stop their customs, stop all of their practices.
They stood up to them. Some of them died in doing so. This was kind of the origin story for the Pharisees, right? They stood up to the authorities and they said, no, we need to do things our way. We need to have our laws and our customs. That's how the Pharisees came about. Author Nancy Guthrie says this, The word Pharisee conjures up the image of a judgmental, conniving, and even murderous man. But if you and I lived in the time of Jesus, we would not have seen the Pharisees as evil.
We would have honored them as heroes. These were the respected men of the day. They didn't have official roles, but they had a lot of influence. But there was a big problem with the influence that they were having. And here's the problem. They were very strict on passing down and observing traditions that were based on the law of Moses. Those traditions often went beyond God's law. Or, in some cases, missed the intent entirely. Way beyond it. Their goal was to establish righteousness in society.
They wanted to make everyone and everything pure and righteous through obeying traditions that were not from the Torah. They were based on the Torah. They were taught from the Torah. But they were man-made traditions, a lot of them. Dietary purity, tithing, fasting, prayer, separation from the unclean. All of these things, they were heaped on the law of Moses to keep everyone orderly and pure and righteous in their eyes. All these rules. The name Pharisee comes from a word that means to separate.
So they were the separate ones, the set-apart ones. And they wanted to make sure everyone and everything was set apart. And that's why they're upset. So they grumbled at the disciples. They said, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? They're seething. In other words, How can we take you seriously if you're with these people? No respectable rabbi spends time with these type of people. Much less in the house of one, having dinner with them, sharing fellowship with them.
They're accusing Jesus of sin by association. Jesus, you're with them. This doesn't make any sense. You're supposed to be above them. You're supposed to be beyond them, away from them. That's what makes you acceptable, according to the Pharisees. You stay away from people like this. That's what makes you clean. That's what makes you set apart.
They are completely confused. They're undone. They're frustrated by Jesus right now. You're supposed to be an example, Jesus, like we are, to all these people that are unclean. An example of you stay away from the bad people, and that's how you're good. But let's talk about the mission of Jesus. Because here's what Jesus says to them. He assumes their point of view in order to critique them. Those who are well have no need of a position for those who are sick.
What he's saying is this. Look, if you call them sinners, why are you surprised that I'm with them? It doesn't make any sense. Isn't someone who's called to represent and proclaim God supposed to spend time with people that need them the most?
Suppose someone graduated from med school and passed the board, and you said to them, what's next? Are you going to go into private practice? Are you going to work in a hospital? And he or she said to you, oh, no, no, no. I can't stand sick people. I'm really grossed out by germs. I don't want to do that. It would be very weird, right? You're a doctor. The Pharisees are germaphobic doctors, basically. They call themselves doctors. They carry themselves like doctors, but they won't go near sick people.
It doesn't make any sense. It does to them because they think purity is because I keep my distance from all these impure people. Unlike them, Jesus moves towards the needy, towards the sinners, towards the impure, the broken, towards the outcasts. He said, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now, he's not calling them righteous, by the way. He's just assuming their point of view to criticize them. He's saying, you don't understand yourselves, and you don't understand me.
The Pharisees were the so-called set-apart ones. They think that what makes them acceptable to God is how well they stay away from all the unclean people and unclean things that are around them. The painful irony is that they need Jesus just as much as the tax collectors. But as long as they believe that sinners are other people, sinners are out there, then they are keeping themselves distanced from the very help that they need. It is so painful.
Receiving the life of Jesus, it only happens when you put your hand up and you say, yep, that's me. You came for sinners, and I'm one of them. I'm one of them, Jesus. I'm no better than anyone else. I need you.
That's what Levi did. And it's such a relief to stop pretending to be honest with God, to be honest with Jesus about our need. It is such a relief. Self-righteousness is exhausting.
Anyone ever been down that road? I know I have. Self-righteousness is exhausting. Jesus came to give us rest. These Pharisees are so close, but they're so far away. Jesus is trying to offering them a new perspective.
Jesus came to give us rest. But He came for the sinners. If you haven't said that to Jesus yet, I'm inviting you today to make this the day that you say to Jesus, yes, I'm one of the ones that you came for. He came to call sinners to repentance. Will you admit that you're one too?
If you have done that, whether you've been following Jesus for three days or for 50 years, don't forget where you came from. Don't forget where you came from. Look at what Paul writes to the church in Corinth. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God. Jesus is trying to change perspectives here. The old wineskin that the Pharisees have is their viewpoint about what set-apart means.
It means keeping my distance so I don't get stained. Jesus wants to offer them a new perspective on what it means to be set-apart. He wants them to have a new wineskin to hold His new wine. And that is this. You are washed and set-apart by me. I am the one that cleanses you. This is the first way that we're set-apart. Only by trusting in Christ are we washed and set-apart. This means that in the church there should be no cliques, there should be no divisions, there should be no superiority, there should be no favoritism, there should be no partiality.
We all got in the same door in the same way. If self-righteousness is like a recurring headache that clouds our thinking and incapacitates us, grace is like extra-strength Tylenol. You've got to take it as often as you need it, which is a lot. A lot. Speaking for myself, it's a lot. We need the grace of God often to remind us it is not by our own righteousness that we got in here.
But there's a second way. There's a second way that we're set-apart for use by God in His kingdom, and that's exactly what Levi shows us here. Levi shows us both things. He's set-apart because Jesus calls him and Levi responds. And Levi is set-apart for the good works that God prepared for him. Levi turns towards his tax-collecting buddies. He doesn't look at them and be like, ugh, you guys are gross. He invites them into his home. He invites the same disreputable people into his home, but this time, it's not to laugh and to revel at all of the ill-gotten gains, all of the ways that they bilked their neighbors.
They got more this time. Check out the story that I told this person. I got this much more because of that, and they all laugh. That's not what this is about anymore. They're not just reveling in their corruption, in their greed. Now they're together to meet Jesus. Levi immediately puts his money, his house, his relationships, and his testimony for good use in God's kingdom. Immediately. The first thing he does. In 2 Timothy, Paul writes this, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, like Levi did, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
It just gets a little washed out up here on the screen, but there's some dishes behind there. A vessel here, you might read vessel and be like, what's he talking about? A vessel, just think of it like a dish, a pot, a pan, something in your house, something in your kitchen. That's what a vessel is. Some members of my family, I won't name names, maybe your family too, have this strange practice of owning really nice dishes and keeping them in the cabinet all the time.
Maybe even fine china and keeping them in the cabinet. When we eat together, when family gatherings happen, they get out paper plates. Sometimes I've asked, hey, why don't we use these? These look so nice.
I've heard, I know you're laughing because I know you've heard the same thing. You hear something like, oh, we don't want to get them dirty. They might get chipped. They might get messed up. We don't want to get them dirty. Let's just use the paper plates.
Listen, we are cleansed and set apart for use. You see this? Useful vessel for honorable use. Not vessel for honorable display. Vessel for honorable use. We are useful to the master of the house. We're not up in a display case. We are meant to be used by God. That's why he cleansed us.
Do you know what happens when you use a dish? It gets dirty. That's okay. It can be washed again and used again. Jesus' reputation was tarnished by associating with these people. He took a hit so that he could be with them. Their bad reputation was justified. They did something wrong. They had a legitimately bad reputation. Okay? This was not just people not liking other people.
But Jesus came to them to call them. Levi followed Jesus' example and we should too. I'm so glad that this text came just a week before the Easter egg hunt. I'm not saying that the people that are coming are tax collectors. Remember, we are all sinners, right? But it gives us an opportunity to put this verse into practice. We are set apart for use in the kingdom of God.
Who do you move towards? Who gets invitations into your house? Whose invitations do you accept to spend time with them? Church, let's get uncomfortable so that we can share the comfort of Christ with people. let's extend the grace of Jesus to the disgraceful people because we know that we too, apart from God, we're disgraceful people. The only grace that we have comes external to us and is given to us. Let's share meals and friendships with people whose reputations are terrible even if it's their fault that they're terrible.
Let's do this because we were once lost and outcast sinners just like Levi. Sitting at a tax booth all alone. Let's do this because we want God's glory more than we want a tidy and respectable life.
I just want to say one little note here. I encounter this when I do have conversations about membership and these kinds of things but I think it's good just to say publicly we have different stories in the room. Some of you are hearing what I'm saying right now and you're thinking, I was Levi. I can remember the day, the hour that I was sitting at that tax booth, my version of the tax booth doing whatever and Jesus called me and I got up and followed him.
So it's very clear to you this is who I was and so when you talk to people who are still outside of Christ who are thinking about it that's the kind of thing that you can share easily. This is who I was. See what Jesus did for me. But that's not all of you. Some of you have a story like mine where I grew up going to church. I don't remember a point of that was so dramatic like that where I was I was once outside and then I came inside. I just want to challenge those of you who have stories like mine.
You have to do a little bit of work and if you think about your own story you think about your own tendencies towards sin you can start to imagine think about you on your worst day and then multiply that times a hundred. Without the work of the Holy Spirit in your life you can imagine where you would have gone what you would have done. Maybe even on your worst day there were times that you did it. I'm just saying for those of us who don't have a story like Levi's where we once were lost and now we're found where we grew up I never knew a day where I didn't say Jesus was my Savior.
Now that doesn't mean I haven't grown I've certainly grown in Christ it hasn't been like you know it hasn't been kind of a plateau the whole time it's been a growth but what I'm saying is if you don't have that story of yeah I was 17 and I was doing this and God called me and now I'm doing this if you don't have that kind of story do the work do the work with the Holy Spirit of thinking about yourself so that you can be ready to answer someone when they're like how did God call you?
you can say you know what I've always known Jesus as my Savior but I can tell you I struggle with this and this and this these are the things that I would have done and said were it not for the fact that Jesus held me by his grace and let me tell you some stories of when I actually did that we have to be ready to tell our story in these situations because all of us truth be told all of us were like Levi even if some of us that happened when we were very very young let's have outreach that reflects the bold recklessness of Jesus people might raise their eyebrows at us they might call our own reputations into question but we're just going to look more like Jesus when we do that let's pray Lord thank you for your grace thank you for your mercy towards us what Jesus said here Lord that he came not to call the righteous but sinners just pray that that would sit with all of us right now that we would remember that none of us came to you with our own righteousness with our own goodness no matter what our stories are Lord help us to remember that we need your grace we need your mercy we need it even now help us to be ready with reckless outreach towards the outcasts and lost knowing that but for the grace of God that is us help us not to be spiritual snobs to be humble to be appropriately gospel humble and extend that grace to other people Jesus thank you for your work we pray this in your name