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Battle Creek Tabernacle SDA Church

Chris Holland

Tax Collectors, Sinners, and The Great Physician

Do you believe that Jesus, our Redeemer, is faithful and true?

Do you believe that everything He has said, He will do?

Today we are going to look at a story in the life of Jesus where he encountered a tax collector, a group of sinners, and they were introduced to him as the great physician where he was faithful and true to everything He had said He did that day.

Heavenly Father, we have gathered here to study the Word and it is our prayer that as we open the Word we would experience its life-giving power and that it would be the two-edged sword that will cut to the Joint and marrow.

Help us today, Lord, to experience the refining power of Your Word.

Today we will begin a journey in the Gospel of Mark.

2 weeks ago, I suggested that individuals begin studying their Bible in the book of Mark.

And so for the next several weeks we will study the book of Mark.

And I want to encourage you if you are studying Mark in your own personal devotions, that I would suggest you bring your journal or your notebook that you've been using on Sabbath morning, that we would study together, that we would come together and understand the book of Mark together.

Now, there will be several special events in May and June, but we will continue to study through the various portions of the book of Mark.

The book of Mark was written by John Mark.

John Mark was an associate of Peter, but he was also an associate of Paul and Barnabas.

And while John Mark does not seem to have been a personal eyewitness to all the events of the life of Jesus Christ.

He clearly heard the preaching and the teaching of Peter, and then in turn wrote those stories that he heard down and recorded them for our benefit.

It is believed that John Mark lived with his mother Mary in the early days of the church.

Many scholars and historians actually believe that Mark is the young man that fled away in Mark 14.

In Mark chapter 14, if you have your Bibles, I'd encourage you to open your Bibles.

Mark chapter 14, in verses 51 and 52, it records this of a certain young man.

This is what the Bible says in Mark chapter 14, verses 51 and 52.

Now a certain young man followed him, speaking of Jesus, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body.

And the young men laid hold of him and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked." Mark desired to follow Jesus and it would appear that he followed him in his later ministry.

You'll remember from the ministry of Paul and Barnabas it was John Mark who accompanied them on their first missionary journey but at some point he wanted to return home which he did.

Then when it was time for the second missionary journey for Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement.

Paul did not because John Mark had deserted them.

This dispute led to Paul and Barnabas parting and going their own ways.

Mark did accompany Barnabas on his missionary journey and he became an effective worker for God.

In fact, history records that he went to Rome and the Bible records that he went to Rome and there he actually helped Paul during Paul's first imprisonment.

Paul's mind was so changed about John Mark's work that in his second imprisonment when he wrote to Timothy and he asked Timothy to come to Rome he asked Timothy to bring John Mark with him.

Most scholars believe that the book of Mark, the gospel of Mark was actually the first gospel that was written.

But what is very important as we explore the book of Mark is this, As you read Mark, Mark paints a picture of Jesus and what it means to be his disciple.

What does it mean to be a true follower of Jesus?

By Mark telling the stories of Jesus, he gives the invitation to follow him in light of who he is and what Jesus has done and what Jesus will do.

For those that appreciate literature, the Gospel of Mark actually begins quite abruptly.

Mark 1 1 simply says, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Yet in that very short and albeit abrupt introduction, it opens up to it with just that 1 verse, the profound nature of the gospel message.

It shows just that 1 brief sentence that Jesus is the Christ.

He is the Messiah, because he is the Son of God.

And his death, his suffering, his life, all a part of man's redemption, is good news, which is what the word gospel literally means.

And while the gospel of Mark is the shortest of all the gospels, It is packed and has even some details that the other Gospels do not contain.

It is important to note that when Mark says the gospel, the beginning of the gospel, the word gospel, while certainly familiar today in Christian circles, is a word that was used in secular Greek at the time of Mark.

Roman emperors would use the word uanglion talking about bringing about a better Rome and with each emperor they attempted for there to be a better good news.

My Uangalian will be better than the previous Uangalian.

But Christianity does not have that, my dear friends.

There is not greater and better news with each successive age of church history.

There is 1 note and 1 piece of good news, and that good news is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

That news would have sounded strange to a secular Greek individual that Jesus was and is the only anointed 1, the only Messiah, the only hope of Israel.

But as strange as it may sound, the mystery of the Gospel, as the Apostle Paul refers to it, the foolishness of preaching, that good news is this, Jesus is our only hope for our world then and our world today.

He is the only hope for our age today and for all time.

Mark referred to Him as the Son of God, which later, Jesus expanding on that, says He is the Great I am.

But with that short and abrupt introduction, Mark, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, emphatically places before us the only 1 who can change everything for us.

This short introduction flies in the face of modern Christianity.

You see, modern Christianity has watered down the good news of Jesus Christ to no longer be good news, but rather to be good advice.

Modern day Christianity has boiled down the message to tell people to be kind, to smile a lot, to love all creatures, to think positively, and to feel good about yourself.

But the true gospel of Jesus Christ is something far different, far more radical, and far more explosive.

It has to do with God's redemptive action and the reality that we are sinners, we are going to die eternally unless we turn our hearts, turn our minds upon Jesus Christ, the only 1 who can and will save us.

Throughout the gospel of Mark, we see the tension of that day, but it applies to our day today.

The disciples delighted at the idea of power and achievement and personal ambition.

The disciples wanted a Messiah who was above suffering, 1 who would give them their heart's desires, 1 who wanted the Messiah to adapt His will to their desires and needs.

And that is what has been manifest in modern Christianity today.

And so as we study the gospel of Mark, it may be a rude awakening to those who are more interested in themselves and ensuring their own personal salvation and their own interest, excuse me, their own entrance to eternal life than being interested in God and what God's plan is for their life.

The gospel is not selfish, the gospel is selfless.

And this is the premise upon which Mark has built his entire story of the life of Jesus, and it is the premise of why Jesus came to this earth.

And so it is with that introduction that it leads us directly to the story we will study this morning.

Mark chapter 2, beginning in verse 13, I would invite you to open your Bibles.

If you don't have a Bible with you today, I would encourage you to take the Bible from the pew that you have there.

Then he, speaking of Jesus, went out again by the sea and all the multitude came to him and he taught them.

As he passed by he saw Levi the son of Alpheus sitting at the tax office And he said to him, follow me.

Now it happened as he was dining in Levi's house that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him.

And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, How is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." Jesus was in the region of Capernaum.

Capernaum was a customs port and a main caravan route from Damascus to the Mediterranean Sea.

Jesus was teaching in an area where there was an intersection of commerce, where there were people.

The word in the original Greek is not just any teaching, but teaching where the concern is the whole person and their education in the deepest sense of the word.

In fact, when we look at the life of Jesus in all of the gospels, teaching was 1 of the most important and prominent functions in his public ministry.

And my dear friends, teaching is still a critical part of the church doing ministry the way of Jesus.

Teaching not just any teaching, but teaching from the Word of God.

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Tax Collectors, Sinners, and The Great Physician

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