The Sickness of Sin

Transcript

Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. Following the scripture reading by Pastor Ryan Lister, Pastor Thomas Terry will deliver the message entitled, The Sickness of Sin. This message is part of our larger series called Follow the Son, which goes through the Book of Mark. Thanks for joining us. Here’s Ryan. Good morning, Trinity Church. Our text today will be found in the Book of Mark, chapter 2, verses 13 through 17. He, that is Jesus Christ, went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, Follow me. And he rose and followed him. And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining

The Sickness of Sin

with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. This Trinity Church is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, a couple of years ago, Heather and I lived in a house that we rented in the Hollywood district just about a mile and a half up the road off of Halsey. We really love this house. It was spacious and comfortable. And we used to host our small group there, so many of you have been in this house.

We used to squeeze about 36 people in our small group. It was a great place. It was in a great location, and it was what we needed at the time. There was a few quirky and awkward things about this house, but overall, it was great. One of the biggest things about this house that was awkward was our house was positioned right next to this apartment complex. The way that the house and the apartment were positioned, it was right out our window. If people were standing in their kitchen or their dining room, they would have a direct line of sight into our master bedroom, our dining room, and definitely our backyard. You can imagine this was awkward. Many days, we would have to close our blinds if we just wanted some privacy. What was amazing is we had a lot of good relationships with the people in this apartment complex.

Really good folks there. I remember this one lady, her name was Donna, and Donna was a talker. She was really loud. In fact, every night, we would be laying in bed, and we would just hear Donna at all hours of the night yelling at somebody. She was just really loud. Donna just always happened to be outside. For whatever reason, it could be snowing or sunny. She was outside yelling at something. Every day, I would go take out the trash or go to my car. I would see Donna because she was always outside. She would say, hey, Thomas, from across the parking lot, and I would say, hey, Donna, what’s going on? But this one day, it was kind of random, as I was taking out the trash, Donna stops me, and she asks me a question. Well, she yells a question. She says, hey, Thomas, y’all some church-going folks, huh?

I said, yeah. I was all excited. We go to church. We’re Christians. We love Jesus. She said, yeah, I could tell. Y’all seem like very nice people. You’re always willing to help people, and I see you leaving every Sunday with your kids to go to church. Then she said something very interesting. She said, yeah, I go to church sometimes, every once in a while. She said, maybe if I stopped smoking and drinking, that Jesus would let me go to heaven. She said, maybe if I stopped smoking and drinking, then maybe Jesus would let me go to heaven. What an interesting perspective. See, in Donna’s mind, she believes that good behavior gets you to Jesus, that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. In fact, this is not unique to Donna. This is the common assumption in our culture, both among religious people and irreligious

people. It’s sort of this Western Christian karma that the sum of a person’s actions in this life determine their future fate, that good people who do good things receive from God an eternal reward, and bad people who do bad things receive from God eternal punishment. This assumption is understandable because most of us were raised in an environment where good behavior was rewarded and bad behavior was punished. Think about your childhood. When you did something good, you were rewarded, at least in my house, with treats or cookies or whatever. You do something bad, you get punished. Think about school. You do something bad, you get punished. You do something good, you get rewarded. Think about insurance companies. They reward you with better rates for not violating traffic laws, but the moment you break that law, they punish you by raising your premiums. See, this is a learned pattern of behavior.

Most of us assume that since society works within this reward-punishment mentality, that this is in fact how the God of the universe deals with us. They base their entire worldview and religious principles on assumptions that in the end are completely inaccurate. As it pertains to Christianity, here’s what the culture assumes. That a person must be a religious person before he can come to Jesus. That a person must clean himself up before he or she can come to Christ. That God hates bad people and only loves good people. That God does not engage with sinners and seems to only engage with righteous, morally upright people. This assumption is not anything new, but this assumption is the farthest thing from the truth. In fact, this is the very assumption that Jesus shatters in our text this morning. What we’ll see in this text is that Jesus in his earthly ministry has come specifically

Five Scenes from Mark

and purposefully to engage needy sinners with the message of the gospel. Because Jesus is in the business of engaging needy sinners, this again creates conflict, especially with the self-righteous religious leaders who functionally believe that they have on the basis of their own moral goodness earned acceptance and favor with God. This morning we get another picture of conflict. When Jesus authoritatively calls the worst of sinners and Jesus willingly associates himself with sinners, conflict occurs between Jesus and the religious leaders. This morning I’ve taken these five verses and I’ve broken them down into five scenes. Let’s begin with the first scene that sets the context. Scene one, the sermon by the sea. Verse 13, he, that is Jesus, went out again beside the sea and all the crowd was coming to him and he was teaching them. So if you could remember last week in our text, we were at the home of Simon and Andrew

in Capernaum. Jesus was preaching in the house when all of a sudden these four faithful friends of this paralytic man begin to rip open the roof to get their friend to Jesus. And when Jesus sees their faith, their willingness to go to extreme measures to get this man to Jesus, Jesus forgives this paralytic man’s sins. But when Jesus forgives this man’s sins, the scribes think to themselves in their hearts, this is blasphemy. How could this man forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins. So Jesus, knowing their thoughts, says to these scribes, what’s easier for me to do? Heal this man’s sins or tell him to raise up and go. And so Jesus tells this man, get up and go. Jesus’s authority to forgive the paralytic man’s sins creates controversy with the scribes in the city of Capernaum. And it’s here in our text this morning where Jesus moves from this city of conflict with

these scribes and begins to do ministry by the sea. And again, we see Jesus and his disciples ping-ponging back and forth between the home of Simon and Andrew and other places to do ministry. And because Jesus teaches with such authority and because he’s constantly demonstrating miraculous acts, he constantly captures the attention of crowds. Everywhere he goes, people flock to Jesus. He’s always surrounded by crowds. And here again, Jesus demonstrates his preaching ministry, his priority of preaching. When people come around, when the crowds flock to him, what does he do? He preaches. He preaches. Jesus is here by the sea preaching to the crowds, giving them a sermon about the kingdom of God and the forgiveness of sins. And when he’s done preaching, he begins to move into the next town to do the work of preaching when he comes across a tax booth where he meets Levi, the tax collector, which

The Scandalous Summons

brings us to scene two, the scandalous summons. Verse 14, and as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him. As Jesus passed by this tax collector in his booth, again, Jesus does what is unthinkable. Scandalous, even. He calls a tax collector to follow him. He engages a tax collector to become a disciple. Now why is this unthinkable or scandalous? Well, to really get this full picture, you have to first and foremost understand the public perception of a tax collector. See in this time and in this culture, everybody hated tax collectors, especially the religious leaders, because tax collectors were more often than not the types of people that were extortionists. They were money hustlers and swindlers. In this culture, tax collectors were considered the shadiest types of people.

Far worse than shady mechanics in our culture who sometimes fiscally exploit people who know nothing about cars. Far worse than multi-level marketing or pyramid schemes that financially break people and friendships. Far worse than internet scammers who take advantage of low-tech vulnerable people. These tax collectors were the most socially detested and vile people, especially in the eyes of the religious community. See Levi was a Hebrew, like most tax collectors in this region. And this Hebrew worked for the oppressive Roman government. So not only did this tax collector collect money from hardworking Jews to pay the Roman pagan government, these tax collectors economically exploited their own people. By adding additional costs to their tax so that they could get their share of the profit. See this was a very broken system and the way the broken system worked was by exploiting people. This was big business and there was no regulation for tax collectors, so long as Rome got its

fair share of their money, then the tax collector could charge whatever they wanted for however they wanted, no matter what. If a person refused to pay the tax, well then the tax collector would simply go to the Roman soldiers and then the Roman soldiers would get involved and then it would be all bad. So all these hardworking people, laboring day in and day out, some for very little money, working for their big families, were now being subject to all types of taxation from a fellow Jew, from a Hebrew. So tax collectors in their mind were the worst types of people. A couple of weeks ago we looked at the leper and we thought for sure that a leper was the worst type of person. They were considered unclean and unapproachable. They were treated as outsiders, banished from their community because of fear of being contaminated.

So lepers were avoided, not because they were hated, but because of fear. Tax collectors are banished from their community and separated from their community precisely because they were hated. They were hated because they were considered sellouts, sellouts, immoral Jews who sold out their people for profit. And in the mind of a Jew, this was the highest category of sinner, the most unforgivable of sinners. So this business made tax collectors very wealthy, but it also made them hated, detested and vile in the sight of religious people. But despite their reputation in the community and in the culture, Jesus sees this socially detested sinful tax collector and calls him to be a disciple. Jesus sees this tax collector, sinful, yes, but unapproachable, unforgivable, no. Now I can just imagine the disciples, what’s going on in their mind, their perspective of this whole encounter. They’ve likely been taxed by Levi before.

Remember tax collectors were always hanging out with fishermen. Remember when we talked about that? The reason why they were always hanging out with fishermen is because there was always money exchanging going on. Well, that money exchanging was taxation. Fishermen were always being taxed for the fish that they caught. So these fishermen who more than likely already knew who Levi was and already had some ill feelings towards him say to Jesus, Jesus, you do know that he’s a tax collector. I’m not a big marketing guy by vocation, we’re just fishermen, but yo, a tax collector, this is all bad. I mean, we’re just starting to grow in our ministry influence. We’re just starting to get these massive crowds, Jesus, this is gonna be very bad for our brand. But you see Jesus’ brand identity is sympathy for sinners. His brand culture is compassion towards controversial people.

He is the one who forgives and calls the shadiest types of people to repentance. You see the same posture towards prostitutes, towards thieves, towards unclean, irreligious people. This was Jesus’ MO. And although Levi was the most unlikely candidate in Capernaum, Jesus extends scandalous compassion to Levi and calls him to follow him. You see, this call was not merely a request from Jesus. This offer was not simply an invitation, it was a summons. It was a scandalous summons. This is the effectual call of Jesus who bids this tax man, this sinner, to cast aside his former life of extortion and greed and thievery to give up everything and follow Jesus for a new and better life. Jesus calls this detestable tax collector to turn from his sin and follow Jesus. This is just like the fisherman, just like the call of the fisherman. Jesus calls the fisherman to give up everything and they respond to the summons just like

that. Jesus calls this tax collector to give up everything and follow Jesus and he responds just like that. He gives up everything in pursuit of Jesus. This tax collector chooses forgiveness over financial flourishing. This is amazing. This text doesn’t give us much about Levi, but I can’t help but think about this man’s life. Here is this man, so enslaved to money that he’s willing to economically exploit his people to get to the top. See there is a cost to get to the top of the financial chain. His enslavement to money made him hated by his own people. He was ostracized by his own religious community. He was despised by countless people every single day as he took their money. He knew what the people thought about him. He knew what the people said behind his back and in some cases what they said directly to his face.

They knew that he was, he knew that he was viewed as the scum of the earth. But when Jesus, this rabbi comes, Jesus actually speaks to this man kindly. He shows him dignity and worth and more than all that, Jesus offers this man forgiveness. See Levi, like everyone who has ever lived, was longing for something deeper, was longing for something more satisfying, for something transcendent. We were all made this way. This is in our hearts. This sense of longing is in all of our hearts. So it’s no surprise that when Jesus, the transcendent one, calls Levi, that Levi finds the very thing he’s been looking for, the one who can satisfy his soul, the one who can satisfy his deepest longing. Levi was offered forgiveness of sin, peace with God, a new life with dignity and purpose no longer defined by his past, but by his forgiven future.

The Social for Sinners

Levi receives from Jesus something that money could never buy, respect, dignity, love, forgiveness of sins, satisfaction, purpose, meaning, and a new life. And we know this is the case because Levi, who is later changed, his name is changed to Matthew, becomes Matthew the evangelist, Matthew the gospel writer. Levi becomes a new man when he’s encountered with Jesus, which is why Levi responds both immediately and enthusiastically by throwing a party for all of his unforgiven friends. And this brings us to scene three, the social for sinners. Verse 15, and as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. So Levi, in response to this great gift of forgiveness and acceptance by Jesus, throws this massive house party, and Jesus is the featured guest. Levi invites all of his friends, all of his friends.

What kind of friends does Levi have? If he’s detested by most people, most of the morally upright religious community, what kind of friends does Levi have? Extortionists, thieves, social outcasts, all the rest of the scum of the earth. Levi invites a bunch of tax collectors and all these social outcasts to his house for a dinner party. He throws a party. Why does he throw this party? Why does he throw a party? Well, one, he wants to celebrate this new life that he has with Jesus. He’s geeked on this new life. But most importantly, he wants to introduce his friends to Jesus, this rabbi full of compassion, this one who forgives sinners like us, the worst kind, the despised, the overlooked, the passover. He wants to introduce his friends to Jesus so that they might receive the same forgiveness that he experienced. Now, notice what happens.

Levi experiences the forgiveness of sins from Jesus. Jesus speaks to this tax collector with dignity and says, follow me. And then he throws a party. He throws a party. He feels the liberation from Jesus. He feels freedom from Jesus, and he is so completely moved that he’s compelled to tell others about it. So he throws a party. And just to be clear, the theme of this party was evangelistic. This is the natural response to someone who receives Jesus. They are so moved by the forgiveness of sins and their relationship with Jesus that they just can’t contain it. They feel like they gotta tell everybody about it. I mean, listen, I used to live in Los Angeles, and you could always tell when a gangster or a thug became a new convert to Christianity. You could always tell when a thug was saved by Jesus because of how hard he would go for

Jesus. They were always hitting up their friends, hitting up their homeboys. They were radical and unashamed about telling people about Jesus. Now why do they do that? Why are these gangsters and thugs so zealous? Because they were gangsters and thugs. See, folks like that were so radically and miraculously saved by grace that they couldn’t hide it. They know intimately the depths of their sins and how far deep they were into their sin. So they know just how far Jesus would have to go to save them from their sins. So they zealously proclaim it. Now we could look at these thugs and gangsters and in many ways understand it because after all they’re thugs and gangsters. These were very, very bad people who were saved. But there isn’t a greater degree of grace between you and the thug. In the sight of a holy God, your sin is just as bad.

We were just as scandalous. So why then are we so cavalier about our Christianity? Why are we not throwing parties and inviting all of our unsafe friends to tell them about Jesus? Maybe we’re not zealous enough because we’ve forgotten the depths of God’s grace in our life. Maybe we believe that we were never really that bad of a person to begin with that would necessitate that kind of zealous response. Maybe we think to ourselves that we were more of a sophisticated kind of sinner. Whatever the case may be, maybe we need to be reacquainted with the depths of our sin and be re-enchanted with the depths of God’s grace and start throwing parties like Levi did and invite all of our unbelieving friends. So Levi throws this evangelistically motivated house party and the people who are in attendance, well you have Jesus, you have the disciples, you have Levi, you have a whole crew of wretched

sinners reclining and eating at the table, but guess who else is at the party? The scribes, which brings us to scene four, the self-righteous separatists. Verse 16, and the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

Self-Righteous Separatists

So as the party’s in full swing and everybody is hanging out, in comes the religious leaders. And when they see Jesus eating with these sinners and tax collectors and other types of sinners, they lose their mind. They can’t believe it. And so they ask the disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? I love how the NLT translates this. How can this teacher eat with such sinful scum of the earth? Because this here captures the essence of the question. It’s a loaded question. How can he do that? How can Jesus hang out with such immoral, unclean people? They can’t conceive of it. They can’t understand why in the world Jesus would stoop so low to do that. See, these scribes were the scribes of the Pharisees, which means this was a very particular sect of scribes. They were the separatists. In fact, that’s what the word Pharisee means, separatist, ones who would separate themselves

from the world. These people would be the religious fundamentalists of the Jewish community. And they wanted Jesus to be just like him, just like them. They wanted Jesus to be a separatist, separate from sinners, not associating with this lower class of sinners. Now I want you to pause for a second and notice three things. First, eating together in this culture, reclining at table was a very intimate thing. This was a very intimate thing. It was exclusive. These parties were exclusive. An invitation to a dinner like this determined a certain level of social intimacy. It wasn’t like a Facebook event or an Instameet where you publicly broadcast that you’re having a party and everybody who follows you can just click, I’m going, and then anybody can show up. It was exclusive. It was exclusive. It was intimate. So this shows you the tone of the party.

Second, the religious leaders who were so worried about socializing with sinners because they were separatists, they were actually at the party. Their hypocrisy exposed their intentions. Their proximity exposed their intentions. These scribes could show up at the party as long as they weren’t eating with them, as long as they weren’t intimately socializing with them. They could come and be in the presence of sinners as long as the purpose for their presence was to condemn people, to judge people. This shows you the heart of the Pharisees. And three, Jesus was eating with them, full on kicking it with them. He was intimately socializing with them. He was in the presence of sinners not to condemn these people, but to offer them forgiveness of sins. The very reason Jesus was there was to call people just like he called Levi, the tax collector. Levi threw this party so that Jesus could call people to himself.

This shows you the posture of Jesus. See, these Pharisees should have rejoiced at this evangelistic opportunity that was given to spread the good news about the gospel to these sinners. But instead, these Pharisees burned with judgment and contempt. They just couldn’t understand it. How could Jesus be socially engaged with these people? So these Pharisees make a huge deal about how Jesus is hanging out and eating with sinners. They didn’t care about what Jesus might be saying to these people. They didn’t care about the types of conversations that Jesus was having with these people. They didn’t care that Jesus was offering life to people. They were only concerned that Jesus was associating himself with sinners. You remember when we were talking about Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist? You remember Jesus was sinless. Why did he need to be baptized? Well, that baptism had everything to do with Jesus associating himself with sinners.

This is why Jesus came, to associate himself with sinners. But not only to associate with sinners, but to die for sinners. But these scribes were so blinded by their self-righteousness that they missed the compassion of Jesus as he brought the gospel to the people who needed it the most, sinners. Do you notice the cowardness of these Pharisees? They were not brave enough to address Jesus directly. They were not willing to speak directly to Jesus. So first, the Pharisees thought in their mind about Jesus. They don’t address Jesus, they just think about it in their mind. Now they’re concerned, but they still don’t go to Jesus, they go to his disciples to address Jesus. They passively condemn the actions of Jesus by addressing his disciples. But even though they address his disciples, Jesus hears them, and he responds swiftly and appropriately. And this statement from the scribes turns up the tension between Jesus and the religious

The Sin Surgeon

leaders. Which brings us to scene five, the sin surgeon, verse 17. And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. I love this response from Jesus. You should love this response from Jesus, because this is us. None of us were righteous, none of us were good enough, all of us are sinners. This verse succinctly and powerfully speaks to the very reason God came in human flesh, to save sinners. So Jesus responds with this kind of cultural proverb to these scribes. And these scribes would have understood this cultural proverb. He says, it’s not the healthy people who need a doctor, it’s the sick people that do. I find it interesting that Jesus chooses to use this proverb about a doctor and sick people.

Because sick people have the inability to aid themselves. They require the assistance and help of a physician. If they could fix themselves, they would do it. They can’t do it. They’ve got to go to the place where they can get it. See, oftentimes we look at sin and the person entangled in it, and we pass judgment on them as if we, without the aid of Jesus, had any ability to fix ourselves. Which is exactly the posture of these scribes. They genuinely believe that they possess the innate ability to fix themselves. They believe that they’re good enough on their own to be accepted by God. As if acceptance by God is simply a matter of being a good person, behavior modification. See, this is one of the biggest misconceptions about religion. That we can somehow, by our own moral goodness, earn acceptance from God. That if we’re somehow good enough, that Jesus will accept us.

That if we do the right things, or say the right things, or act a particular way, or polish ourself up, that we can earn Jesus’ affection. But this is not how it works. We don’t earn God’s acceptance by our works, Jesus earns our acceptance by his works. This assumption that good works equal good standing with God existed long before the Pharisees and is still culturally assumed today. This is why people like Donna believe that for her to go to heaven, she has to stop smoking and drinking. See, it’s not the smoking and drinking that’s keeping Donna and other people from Jesus. It’s not trusting and believing in the perfect work of Jesus that’s keeping Donna and other people from Jesus. And as if the proverb was not clear enough, and to remove any ambiguity from what Jesus thinks about self-righteous people and works-based righteousness, he says with complete clarity

and complete brevity, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Jesus was saying to those who think they are righteous, I have nothing for you. I have nothing for you. I have nothing to say to you. I’ve come for people who are needy. And listen, when Jesus says he’s come to call not the righteous, he means the so-called righteous, the self-righteous, those who qualify their righteousness by their own standard. But he says, but to those of you who have need, for those of you who know that you are sinners and are in need of forgiveness for you, I have come. And what has Jesus come to do for needy people? Die for their sins. He’s come to lay down his life for sinners, people who recognize they need forgiveness of sins. He has come to exchange his perfect life for their sinful life. In one sentence, Jesus juxtaposes the rejection of the self-righteous and the acceptance of

the unrighteous. Jesus masterfully rebukes the self-righteous scribes and at the same time offers hope for the scandalous sinner. What an amazing God. Spurgeon said it like this, the first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness, but my badness, not my merit, but my misery, not my standing, but my falling, not my riches, but my need. He comes to visit his people, yet not to admire their beauties, but to remove their deformities, not to reward their virtues, but to forgive their sins. Spurgeon captured it in a way that I could never do. It’s not that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell, it’s actually quite the opposite. God rescues bad people, people who recognize their need for Jesus to save them from all of their badness. Good people who stand on their own merits will stand condemned. You hear that?

Good people who stand on their own merits will stand condemned because even the best of your religious deeds are tainted by sin. Your sin must be paid for. Certainly unrepented sinners will eventually face the judgment of God. In the same way, all religious efforts that men do to earn God’s acceptance apart from the saving work of Jesus will be judged by God. Are you a sinner? Are you a bad person? Are you in need of a savior? Have you done things or said things that are so horrible that you think to yourself, I’m too far gone to be rescued by Jesus? I want to tell you this morning, you’re not. You’re not too far gone. All of us in this room have done unthinkable things, scandalous things. But Jesus saves scandalous sinners. He only requires that you express your need of him. Do you want him this morning?

More importantly, do you need him this morning? You can have him this morning by simply trusting and believing in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. He will save you. That’s what he came to do, save sinners. If you would simply demonstrate your need, he will meet it. Now brothers and sisters, maybe you don’t think in the same categories as these Pharisees did. In fact, you view self-righteous people with the same disdain that self-righteous people have for sinners. But an honest evaluation of ourselves proves that many of us struggle with self-righteousness without even knowing it. When our desire for godliness causes us to isolate ourselves from the world and find people who only look like us, who act like us, because that’s just easier for us to do. When we become so consumed with our new identity in Christ and our personal pursuits of holiness that we engage with the world of non-Christians less and less because their sin is so ugly

and so offensive to us. When we begin to doubt that God would actually save certain types of people, prostitutes, drug addicts, homeless people, homosexuals, Satanists, and even celebrities. You might not be self-righteous philosophically, but you may very well be self-righteous practically. Listen, Christ did not isolate himself from the world and from sinners. He gave his life for them. Christ engaged this world to save sinners, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. We need to stop thinking with this us versus them mentality. So many of us have been so consumed by the culture war that we have viewed sinful people as the enemy. But how can we love people with the love of Christ if we treat them like enemies? How can we tell this world about Jesus when all we do is find our own religious subcultures? For all we do is exist in our evangelical ghettos, not concerned about this dying world.

The people of Portland are dying, a slow death because of their sin. The people of Portland have so many false assumptions about Jesus, so many misunderstandings about Jesus, mainly about what he has done for sinners like you and me, how he’s willing to save them if they would simply recognize their need, confess their sins, and turn to him in repentance. Now listen, I know the struggle. I know the struggle. When we come to Jesus, we want to be godly. We want to follow him totally and completely, unhindered and unencumbered. But listen, don’t isolate yourself from the world so much that you fail to bring the light of the gospel into this dark world. The same gospel that was brought to you, you need to bring to others in this world. The gospel brings both forgiveness for the scandalous sinner and for the self-righteous sinner. And I pray that God would help us to not separate ourself from this world, but be actively engaged.

He’s in the business of saving sinners. Remember the person you were before Jesus saved you. Have you forgotten who you were? May God help us to constantly recognize our need for forgiveness, and may he help us to constantly engage this world that radically needs Jesus, desperately needs Jesus. His gospel saves the most scandalous of sinners and the most self-righteous of sinners. May God help us to do that. Father, I pray first and foremost that you would forgive us for our indifference towards this dying world. I pray, God, that you would forgive us for not taking seriously the charge to bring the gospel to bear on the life of people in our world. Forgive us for all those times when we have looked at the people in our communities with disdain, indifference, for not seeing them with the eyes of Jesus. I pray, God, that you would break our hearts to make us more like Jesus, the one who exercises

sympathy for sinners, compassion for the most controversial of people, the one who saves scandalous sinners. I pray, God, that you would help us to engage this city with the message of the gospel. I pray that you would break our hearts for these people in Portland. We pray that our church would be a lighthouse for sinners, for the most desperate and needy of people. We pray, God, that you would continue to do the work of saving people, just like you did for Levi the tax collector. Do that here in our city, using your very people in this congregation, we pray, in Christ’s name. Thanks for joining us for this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can visit our website at www.trinityportland.com.

Amen. Amen.