Title: Keeping The Right Company
Date: 2007-09-09
Reference: Mark 2: 13-17
I believe you can tell much about a person by the company he/she keeps. Look at his or her friends and you can deduce much about his or her character. There is some truth is the old proverb: “Birds of a Feather flock together.” But it’s not the whole truth. We must also consider the motives of people for the company they keep. Why do they choose particular people to spend time with? In ministry we often seek the company of others, not because we like who they are and what they do, but because we hope to have some influence in changing them.
Teachers spend their lives in the company of children, not because they prefer the company of children to adults, but because they regard it a great privilege to help the children learn and grow. Social workers spend much of their time with problem families, not because they prefer families with problems to families without problems, but because they hope to be able to help solve the problems of the families they serve.
Jesus was the friend of publicans, tax collectors, and sinners. The Pharisees assumed that Jesus preferred their company more than he preferred the company of the righteous. They wrongly assumed Jesus approved of their sinful life style. It didn’t occur to the Pharisees that Jesus kept bad company for a good reason. But he did, and so should we.
Our challenge as a church is to consider whether we are more like Jesus in the company he kept, or more like the Pharisees who avoided that company. I believe there are many Pharisees in any church today.
People who believe we should not have anything to do with sinners in the world around us. The Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit. He is reaching out to people we often neglect and avoid. He loves them more than we do. Again reaching out to them does not mean we in any way approve of their life styles.
In today’s reading Jesus saw Levi, or Matthew, sitting at the tax booth. Jesus said to him.”Follow me.” And Matthew rose and followed. After responding to Jesus, Levi hosts a dinner for his friends in order to introduce them to Jesus. The Pharisees criticized Jesus for accepting Levi’s invitation, asking: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said: “I came to call the sinners.”
Tax collectors were regarded as unclean by Jewish teachers. They were unclean politically because they were employees of the hated Roman government. They were unclean ceremonially because their job brought them into constant contact with Gentiles. And they were morally unclean because they were almost always dishonest. They were hated by the common people because they cheated them every chance they got. As a group, tax collector were called sinners. Jesus never gave up on anyone. And so he called Matthew to follow him. Jesus has room in his kingdom for all kinds of people. Jesus has room for each one of us.
Jesus called and Matthew responded. The Bible says he left everything. The very first thing he did was to arrange a party in his own home to which he invited his friends and Jesus because he wanted Jesus to meet them and he wanted them to meet Jesus. He wanted to bring them together.
Levi couldn’t invite his friends to meet Jesus until he had met Jesus himself.
This is the first lesson we learn in evangelism. We have to know Christ before we can make him known. Andrew met Jesus and brought Simon. Philip met Jesus and brought Nathaniel. Matthew finds Jesus or is found by Jesus and introduces his colleagues and business associates to Jesus.
During a children’s sermon the pastor asked the kids Whom have you brought to Jesus? One little girl responded “I brought myself to Jesus.” She was exactly right. You can’t bring anyone else to Jesus until you have brought yourself.
Today is Grandparents Day. Grandparents continue to play an important role in the lives of their grandchildren. I was raised in part by a Godly grandmother. I thank God for her. In the Bible we read how Jacob on his death bed blessed his son Joseph and his two grandsons. Jacob said: “For many years I thought you Joseph were dead and I would never see you again. Now God has let me live long enough to see you again and even your children, my grandchildren.” Paul wrote to Timothy saying: “I remember the faith of your grandmother Lois and how she passed the faith along to you.” Grandparents are important. But God does not relate to us as a grandfather. There are no grandchildren in the Kingdom of heaven, only Sons and Daughters. We do not enter into heaven as a result of our parents faith or our grandparents faith. We must enter into a personal relationship with God through Jesus. And we have to know Jesus ourselves before we can make him known to others. Once Matthew met Jesus it was the most natural thing in the world that he should want to introduce his friends to Jesus.
There are people who have been coming to church for years who have never met Jesus personally. Who don’t enjoy a relationship with God through Christ.
John Wesley was an ordained priest in the church of England, who was very frustrated with his unfruitful ministry. It was only when he came to know Christ in a personal way that Wesley became an effective preacher and pastor. You cannot share what you have never experienced. You cannot introduce another to a Savior you yourself do not know.
The first thing Matthew did was share Christ. We should do the same. Then there were the Pharisees. The world Pharisee means separatist. That’s what they were. The Sadducees compromised with Roman culture. The Pharisees held themselves aloof from the world altogether. They wanted to live a life that was pleasing to God which is a good thing. But they assumed holiness meant insulation. They thought the best way to be righteous is to avoid contact with the unrighteous. So they were shocked to see the company Jesus kept. Why would Jesus go into the home of a sinner? Why would he eat the food provided by a sinner? Why did Jesus make friends with disreputable people like Levi the tax collector? In their view Jesus was contaminated by the bad company he kept.
The Pharisees did not understand that true holiness is a matter of the heart. Through out history there have been Christian Sadducees and Christian Pharisees. The Sadducees, in the church, are so determined, to live in the real world, and not isolate themselves from it, that they have adopted the world’s standards, and surrendered the standards of Jesus Christ. The Pharisees are so determined to live a holy life and not surrender the standards of Jesus that they withdraw from the world altogether. The Sadducees were conformists and the Pharisees were separatists. I believe both got it wrong.
And then there was Jesus. The Pharisees complained to the disciples asking why Jesus ate with sinners. Jesus didn’t give them the opportunity to reply. He replied to their question himself. He said “Those who are well do not need a doctor but those who are ill. I came not to call the righteous but sinners.” A doctor spends his time with the sick not because he like sickness but because he is dedicated to healing. That’s exactly why Jesus mixed with tax collectors and sinners and why he still does today. Jesus does not approve of their ways nor does he want to encourage and promote sin in the world. Jesus came to save. He is the physician of our souls.
The Bible says “No one is righteous, no not one.” There are no righteous people who don’t need Jesus. But there are many self righteous people who think they don’t need Jesus. Jesus came for those who humble themselves and acknowledge their sin and their need of forgiveness.
The Bible also says “Christ came into the world to save sinners.” Jesus entry into the world was not a superficial entry. He didn’t just touch down upon the earth as the Apollo astronauts touched down on the moon and left again. They never identified with the moon. They could never have lived on the surface of the moon and survived. Jesus identified fully with the earth. He entered into our world assuming a human nature. He experienced all we experience.
The Pharisees philosophy was withdrawal, Jesus philosophy was involvement. The Pharisees tried to isolate themselves from the world. Jesus identified with the world. We are called to reach out in love because the God we worship is a God of love.
We have been studying the Fruit of the Spirit on Wed. Evenings.
We have discovered how impossible it is for a person to be indwelt by the Spirit of God and to keep that spirit to himself or herself. One cannot keep the Holy Spirit to Himself or herself.
The mistake the Pharisees made was a mistake about the very nature of God. They thought God avoided sinners when in fact God comes after them. At this point Christianity is different than any other religion. Even in Judaism if a sinner came back to God, God would accept the sinner. But Judaism never taught that God sought the sinner out. Only in Christ does God reach out to people in need.
Where do we fit into the picture? Do we care for outsiders like Matthew or do we avoid them? I pray we will seek out the people of this world, this community, our neighborhoods and make friends with them. And love them. And introduce them to Jesus.
