Making Room at the Table

Chapter 2 and I want to read and again I reflect together verses 13 through 17

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake A large crowd came to him and he began to teach them As he walked along he saw Levi son of Alpheus Sitting at the tax collector's boot Follow me Jesus told him leave I got up Followed him While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house Many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples For there were many who followed him When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors They ask his disciples Why does he eat with sinners and tax collectors? on 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 Good sinners This is the word of the Lord

Several years ago I came across a story of Someone many of you may have heard of Tony Campolo. He's a sociologist at a university up in the Northeast and a Baptist minister and he tells a story of Taking a flight into Honolulu Hawaii Yet again and being so jet lagged in the middle of the night. He couldn't sleep and say goes to an all-night diner And while he's eating there by himself at this diner He overhears a group of prostitutes and the booth behind him And one of the ladies says You know Tomorrow is my 39th birthday And another one just sort of cackles and says what do you expect from us a birthday party? And which the girl muses and says well actually I've never had a birthday party and so no I don't really expect a birthday party So Campolo and if you know anything about this guy, this is exactly what you expect from him Goes to the owner of the diner and says Did these ladies come here every night and he says oh yeah, they're here every night and he says well look That one over there is gonna have a birthday tomorrow and I want to pay For an elaborate birthday party for her tomorrow So they conspired the owner got involved and the next night sure enough That's what happened when they came in They they prepared a feast and there was a big birthday cake and there were some gifts And here was this this guy just just wanting to do this for her So it was an overwhelming experience for this woman she went Several times as they're having this party she couldn't believe it somebody had done this for her And when it was over Campolo said look I'm a I'm a minister and I'd like to pray for you and I just want to pray this That That God would help you and then he would show you his goodness And the woman said I would appreciate that very much And that was what he did the blester that way And afterwards the the owner of the diner came up to him and he and he was angry because he said you know You didn't tell me you were a preacher Um you didn't tell me you were a preacher what kind of church are you a part of To which Campolo said well, I'm I'm a preacher in the church the kind of church that throws parties for prostitutes at 3 30 in the morning Now you know when I encounter christ uh critics of Jesus Christ people who who don't believe for whatever reason Very seldom do I find people every now and then but very seldom do I find people who go you know I just I can't be open to the supernatural or You know there are things about the ministry and the words of Jesus that are so offensive to me Now I find that the thing they have the hardest time believing in Is you and me The thing that is the greatest obstacle frankly to them is not believing in Jesus. It's believing in the church Because they look around and they see a group of people who are inexcusably and scandalously visibly divided from one another And not only that They see people who frankly just don't look a lot like Jesus Christ I mean you look at his critics and and I by the way there's a whole industry you know of Christian radio people and booksellers who Who love to wag on about in bad old evangelicals and all the terrible things that are happening to us because of what we stand for And yet the thing that amuses me greatly is almost none of our critics sound like Jesus critics Our critics are almost never the same. They're never saying the same thing that Jesus critics said about him And if you look in what we just read you see what his critics said what does critics say This critics are moralists who say We saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors and they ask his disciples Why does he eat that is why does he welcome into his life into his his actual life is we're talking about eating intimate intimate communion and fellowship why does he admit people who we know or scandalous and have sent in their life Why does he admit them in? That's just great criticism. I don't know if you've read the paper lately But I generally don't read that is like the burning criticism of Christianity You know, this is our problem with these people. They just they're too loving of of dangerous people They're just too embracing of dirty people And it begs the question that I think we have to ask ourselves which is and I just put it pointedly How much is our ministry and movement? Like the ministry and movement of Jesus Really how much is our ministry our movement like the ministry of movement of Jesus? You know his his critics The Pharisees who are often I think misunderstood There were a group of of it was actually a lay movement. It was Torah concerned Jewish laymen mainly That were there were sort of an ancient moral majority They are a group of people who said you know what we want to do we want to take the Torah We want to take the rules of scripture and rather than just saying that these are things that are a really embraced But the priests and the temple and the sort of religious epidemiophs We want to see everyday people really embrace and make Torah part of their lives That's who the Pharisees were But the problem was this by the way the word means separated ones There approach was flawed according to Jesus for one major reason it was this There approach to sin There approach to brokenness was primarily a preventive one That is you build all sorts of rituals and rules in your life that will keep you away from even getting close to sin And one of the best way to do that of course is to stay as far away as far away as we can from people who like sin So get us if you will it's a prophylactic spirituality It's basically disease prevention is the main way to stay away from sin Now incomes Jesus and you'll notice as you as we begin reading the gospel of mark What do you see happening and the gospel of mark Jesus Has a radically different orientation and it's so different That the people they just they're drawn to it. They don't know what to do about it Here is exactly opposite rather than being a preventive Approach to sin. Jesus has a creative approach and the word that mark keeps using throughout this gospel is authority He has absolute confidence and if you will and I know this is loaded but use your dictionary I'm well within my parameters as opposed to a prophylactic spirituality It's a promiscuous spirituality That is it is anybody and everybody It doesn't matter who you are It doesn't matter where you've been the approach is a creative one that you come to me and you'll be transformed You come to me and you're going to know that you're welcome and you're going to know that you're loved and you're going to know That God can bring healing and wholeness into your life. It's creative and it's authoritative You read the gospels I guess one of the there are a lot of metaphors and images Jesus uses of this Kingdom of welcome is bringing this this table that is spread and and he wants us disciples to go beat the bushes Because of what he himself personally wants to do and the lives of these people But I think one of the real icons of that kingdom is the idea of a city Jesus says that when he speaks to the disciples he says you're a city Set on a hill remember that you heard that Now what is it about cities now? I know there there the great thing about Atlanta is it's you're not sure It's the fisher of foul you know there are people in the room who say I love this city. There are people who go what city I don't live in city But I believe it or not even though it's weird non-mobile driven and land it is a city And those of us who've lived in different cities know that a lot of the dynamics of a city are here And I think one of the wonderful amazing things about a city is this A city can welcome and assimilate Anybody You know many of you've seen the Statue of Liberty in New York and what it represents, you know Just bring me you know bring me bring me bring me and sure enough There's a place they find a way to be incorporated into what's going on into the life and the creativity and the energy of the city The more the better the more the richer the more the merrier I grew up in this town and I think it was a town when I grew up in it Out towards Douglasville And you know, I just remember living around a bunch of white people Who all you know sort of voted the same thought the same and and had a lot of the same views And I come back 20 something years later and I'm looking around and it's amazing How this city has has brought in all kinds of people money has brought in wait. I'm in a room for the Yankees Some of you don't know that but we are Yeah, that's lazy Yankees in this church and not only that Not only that but if you look around this city it is amazing all the diversity of nations You know global politics is actually radically shaped the color the culture the music the sounds of everything That's going around the city and when Jesus talked about what he Wanted his church to be he said you are a city center in a hill That's what my movement is to be like and you see that here with this this guy Levi that we begin in this story Levi who we read in Versa he's right there at the beginning of the story what you see is he's beside a lake He's teaching he walks along and he saw Levi's son of Altheus sitting at a tax collector's booth And you again you see this amazing spiritual power we seem with the other disciples where Jesus literally Commands him to follow And he's able to draw out Levi away from those things that have controlled and Levi's a man who if he's like any of the tax collectors That the people hated he's corrupt and he's got access to money And he's got access to a lifestyle because he bends the rule and he doesn't mind hurting people to get the money he needs And yet the power of Christ the the power of Christ to feed his hungry heart with something more satisfying Is so compelling That he walks away from it Now some people look at this and and there's a there's a great tradition of seeing Levi actually as Someone who's alternately called Matthew and becomes one of the twelve holy apostles And whether or not that's the case it doesn't really say because the emphasis here in mark is not on that On whether or not this is the call of Matthew the the emphasis here is actually the context as you read in verse 15 Not only is Levi there, but the next thing is Jesus then goes to this notorious criminal You know, it's like Sammy the bull you know he goes to Sammy the bull's house And you see that not only are his disciples with him there with him But many of these people we read have become followers of Christ And this is what the movement is characterized you see It really is a city it really is incorporating people now. Here's my question If the church is supposed to be a city If this dynamic wasn't just something at the beginning but something that's supposed to remain the same What's the basic building block? What has to happen for a church to more and more look like a city and less and less like um Well, let's not use like I better not come up with any analogies. They'll hold me Uh, what do you have to do to get a church to look more and more like a city? Well, I think the example you see in the ministry of Jesus really is this The disciples of Jesus are people who follow Jesus and learning what it means to be a true friend To be a person who knows what it is to be a true friend what you see in the life of Jesus that is so humbling and compelling Is it here's a man who makes room in his life? For sinners and For disciples and you know, I love them when people say to me, you know, you just don't understand how busy I am my responsibility Is this sort of thing and I want to go all right? Okay, here we have the example of the eternal son of god Talk about it to do list You know, I'm sorry put your daytime or away. How can you how can any of us be impressed with your your checklist? You're to do lists, you know, here's the son of god, you know He could burn out any palm pilot with any agenda, you know as John says, you know, there's absolutely you know all the books in the world Could to fill up all this man accomplice in three years and yet what he will not What he absolutely will not compromise on Because it is the very essence of his mission the very essence of his spirituality Is that he makes room He is a true friend To people who no one else would be friend and to people who If frankly it's counterintuitive for people who think of himself as holy to prefer he makes room for them and He makes room for his disciples He said something there's disciples if I could go off text to another place because I think it's very helpful in John chapter 15 As Jesus is approaching his crucifixion he explains What he's been doing when this disciples and explains it this way The first thing he says and this is versus fort 15 and 14 What he says is you know Friends he calls them instead of servants or slaves I called your friends. I called you my friends And everything I've learned from my father I've made known to you. These are men who work total outsiders He says rather than trading you as an outsider as an inferior instead of looking down my nose at you I called you a friend And I let you know what the father had let me know What he's basically saying is a true friend lets you in He let him in there was room for them in his life and not only that he goes on and he says this Greater love has no man than this If he lays down his life for his friends You are my friends What is Jesus saying a true friend is someone who lets you in I've called you friends. I made room for you and at the same time a true friend is somebody who never lets you down Not only does he does he invite them in But he says I'm going to give my life for you I'm going to give to you. This is primarily not driven by what you can give to me It is it is countering to what the culture of the world you know be multicultural for what all of them say Friendship my friendships are not driven this way My friendships are driven by the fact that I'm going to lay down my life for you Let's think about that for a second A true friend is someone who lets you in this is the building block of the church of this movement of this this new kingdom Let me ask you something are you somebody who really can honestly say if you're a Christian But you're committed to making room at the table of your life for people who are different than you Do you have a litmus test of politics or race or values? You know one of the things that greatly concerns me is the way people can vary often that they may pick up on a racial group Or they may pick up on a political group and it doesn't matter whether this is a stranger or whatever You feel like you have justified the right to write off these people because you know they're wrong about something Or because you know you disagree with them and you think somehow That's all you need to do and when you meet them It doesn't take five minutes already your political agenda or whatever it is becomes the dominant way you relate to this person And what you've done is you've taken the gospel of Christ and you flushed it down the toilet because these idols being more to you than he does A true friend is somebody who says this is not what drives my welcome of people My welcome of people is driven by the welcome of Christ who said I don't call you an inferior. I don't call you anything I call you a friend who lets you in The reading this week this a writer I really like named Tom Sine He says this in one of his latest books To the extent that we're caught up in our own lives We aren't available to the mission of the church to help others At the time when the American church should be initiating a program of massive mobilization To carry out the great commission to make disciples and the great commandment to love our neighbors We're using the vast majority of our individual and institutional resources on ourselves I am convinced that our limited commitment to Christ's mission in the world can be directly traced To a limited biblical vision for the human future and a limited understanding of God's redemptive plan in history A friend who follows Jesus understands that the nature of the church the nature of the movement If you're one of big alike him really Somebody who lets people in who makes room at the table of your life for them And then who also has a commitment to not let people down I lay down my life You know Very often when it comes to who we spend time with on a Sunday Who we spend time with during the week Frankly what we're looking for is what that person Can give to you. There any of you who struggle with this? I know I have that is spending time with this person Is going to enhance my image of myself. I run with them because they're pretty I like to think of myself as pretty. I'm in with the pretties or maybe I like to run with them because they're cool I'm with them. I'm in with the cools You know there's this there's this built-in to our culture There's a sense in which as soon as we come in anybody we look at them We assess who they are economically Maybe we assess who they are politically Maybe we assess what kind of music they listen to or we assess anything about them and instantly we go through this process Of elimination or Come there things you can do for me Don't you look at Jesus don't you see how how radically Underlining that is how radically subversive that is That what it means to be a follower of Christ Somebody who makes a room and lets people in somebody is willing To never let someone down. Now let me conclude with this. Why do we do this? Why does the church? I mean, you know, let's face it. I think Tom signs right you can you can say that we're not We're not We're not unique or special just wrong We're part of but we're part of a wrong trend frankly that characterizes much of modern global Christianity Why is it? I think a helpful key and as we come to the table this morning. I hope this is an encouragement to you What we read in the second part of verse 17 That we've forgotten what the ministry of Jesus was about and is about what does he say It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick I have not come to call the righteous now listen to that I didn't come to call the righteous Now that doesn't mean Jesus came and went oh look he's okay. He's okay. Oh look your righteous. You're righteous He's describing here that the a foolish person who doesn't see their need a person who's not gonna acknowledge him or or look for him He's saying look a person who's wrapped up in their own pride That who thinks they don't need me I'm here to minister to people whose eyes are opened and who begin to see their need I haven't come to minutes to call the righteous But the minister to the sick because it's not the it's not the healthy who need a doctor But the sick and the point I want to make is that's not just the beginning of Jesus ministry That is what the ministry of Jesus is all about You know there are a lot of I think there are a lot of Christians frankly who've forgotten That we're all still sick Yes, we're receiving healing and yes, we're receiving grace, but the fact is there's still some pathogens At work in our system and there's always going to be a need in which we adhere to a lord Who who we know cares about the sick you know, I have children and small children And the beautiful thing that keeps me close to the ministry of Jesus having small children Is that I basically live on the stave a circle our house is basically I don't know how many cubic feet it is, but it's like the world's largest petri dish Because as we have children going to school and going to church They just they bring in and they just keep reinfest the bio matter and it doesn't matter what I do I use flu glue glue on my hand you know to to have a disinfectant and I you know I take my zinc sausages and stew all these things because it doesn't matter that the the illness still penetrates and comes in Please don't tell me about that the nation. I'm simply this is a sermon illustration. Okay. That's all it is the point is I'm always going to live in a mess I'm always going to live in a mess and you know when you come here and you look in this room and you see these people I talk to people all the time who have this struggle that come in and they say I sell these beaming happy faces And I think of all these happily married people and all these happy perfect children and I think what places they're me for here Is there for me here and I want to say don't believe the lie Don't believe the spin that's absolutely not true What you have here are a group of people who simply can acknowledge that they're sick A group of people who can say I you know, I'm in I'm married or I have children or or I'm I'm lonely Or I have all sorts of struggles with the point is I need a savior that is what brings us together When I talk to people who are resistant Call yourselves Christians, but you're resistant to making room in your life for a greater commitment to gather and be with one another You have a resistance in your life for opening yourself up to a closer connection with other believers I think the great dilemma is this you think you're healthy You think you're healthy, you know and let's face it getting closer to people You know whether we're talking about a small group or or coming closer and friends with believers one of the things that stuff threatening about it Is you can hide in a large group, but it's very hard to hide when somebody knows and really sees what's going on in your life You're afraid you're going to be found out Let me tell you something the gospel is good news. You need to be found out You're not different. You're not alone You just are hanging around with people who aren't being telling you the truth and What we need to do is a church is tell the truth to one another about the depth of our struggle parents People who are married people who are single whatever the struggle tell the truth so that people can know there's help and grace Available there a savior who lets us in and who lays down his life who lets us in never lets us down and calls us to do the same with one another One last little story, you know when Jesus was going to the cross the gospel of John chapter 12 tells the story He thought about Calvary thought about laying down his life For this new community of people him. He would welcome in the sick who he would bring strength and help too As he thought about it He was he was overwhelmed that what he was going to do the sin he was going to take up on himself And John tells us that he said to the father glorify your name And the father literally burst down a voice burst down from heaven and said I have glorified my name and what you're going to do And I'm going to glorify my name again And we're told that all the people around said it thundered what was that what was that it's thunder And Jesus said, you know what would you just heard the father's voice Looking at me going to lay my life down for you and saying this is what brings me the greatest glory He said that was not for my benefit In other words it wasn't because I'm wobbly thinking about the cross. It's for your benefit Because if I lift it up I'm going to draw all men to myself Friends This church each one of us who call ourselves believers we need to hear the thunder again We need to hear the thunder for our benefit just like the first disciples to remember that this is what the ministry and the life of Jesus is out Let's pray as we come to his table Our father Thank you That for those of us who this morning can say we are believers in Jesus Christ You glorified yourself by drawing us to him the one who was lifted up in our place But father I pray that we would hear the thunder And we would remember the agenda of the one who came and I pray that as we respond to your welcome At this table that we would we would not betray that agenda But would give ourselves to it joyfully and with faith that through us you will work We pray this in Jesus name on them

Community of faith You can't just hold a grudge and nurse a grudge against an individual without it affecting the entire community of faith

But as we move on in the story with holding mercy choosing not to forgive Greaves the king Listen in verse 32 then to master call the servant in and what was his assessment you wicked servant He said I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you And in anger His master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all the deodes

My friends we grieve the Holy Spirit of God when we hold on to our bitterness In our anger and our resentments if Ephesians 432 says for us to model the gospel that we believe Practice it with others be kind tender hearted forgiving one another and how are you and why are you to forgive Just as God in Christ has forgiven you But you know the story crescendos here when we would hold mercy We We ourselves end up with ultimate grief

We experience a living hell and what what is hell but Choosing to pay our own debts We can't pay our debts, but if we insist like this unmerciful servant The Lord let's us go and say hey I paid the debt you don't have to do this, but if you insist On paying your debt of sin You will live both now and forever In a state of isolation and separation from me versus 34 and 35 show the graphic and frightful fate of those who insist on paying their own debt The verdict is extremely fair because by your standard of measure it shall be measured to you He demanded justice of his fellow servant. It's unmerciful one And he got justice in the end Instead of mercy And when we choose not to extend and wholeheartedly share gods forgiveness with others we ourselves bar the doors to gods forgiveness of our sins What Jesus is saying is not contradicting the New Testament We are justified. We are declared right before a holy god By grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone

But we must extend that forgiveness because if we don't we demonstrate that we have not embraced his pardon for ourselves

The cost of not forgiving my friends is way too great Way too great Lil' Annette Buñe If you could read that story treasures in the snow her life was transformed She was in the shadow she was in the clouds of bitterness and resentment and anger At Lucien Morrell for what he had done to her brother Danny But as she began to see what Jesus had done for her the cost of her own forgiveness

The spirit of God began to bring her out into the sunshine of his love The same thing Can happen to you this morning as you believe the gospel preach it to yourselves And then model it with those in your life Who have sinned against you. Let's pray