Come As You Are

Introduction

Well, good afternoon. Thankful for the presence of everyone here today to decide it’s important to come back and spend another hour and worship and study of God’s word. And appreciate Scott leading us in songs this afternoon. Appreciate him leading that song. I asked him to lead that this morning, and then I went home and completely changed my sermon. So but I did tell him it’s always a good song no matter what I’m preaching, and it’s always a good one to kind of get her blood pumping a little bit before we have to listen to me. And Martha said that I needed to smack the pulpit a few times to keep her awake. I’m sure there’s so it’s more than just her that’s that’s a little groggy this afternoon, more than a few people who didn’t get there now.

So but I will try and make it brief and to the point this afternoon, but more importantly, as truthful to God’s word as I hope that I can be, and that it would be beneficial to you the message. If you wouldn’t open your Bibles to Mark chapter 10, I’m sorry, Mark chapter 2.

And we’ll be studying from there in just a moment this afternoon. As you read through the Gospel of Mark, specifically the first 10 chapters or so, and as I was studying this, actually about a year, a little more than a year ago, I guess, I was struck with by several things that I’d like to share with you today. The first of which is how Mark begins his gospel. It’s brevity, its abruptness, and its starting point are all shockingly obviously different than the rest of the gospels. Mark is certainly the action-packed gospel, the shortest of the four gospels, and it seems that Mark is mainly concerned with that which he considers to be the most important details. He’s just, this is what you need to know.

It moves swiftly from one event to the next. He’s constantly using this word immediately in the Greek. It’s youthus. I don’t know, I just like that word. But it’s immediately, he uses that word 35 times throughout his gospels. Nine times in chapter 1 alone, immediately. And the only other gospel where either comes close to that is Matthew. He only uses it 14 times. So Mark is just one event to the next, moving right through. And he doesn’t even bother giving any details about stories about the genealogy or birth or early life of Jesus, like Matthew and Luke do. He doesn’t even talk about Jesus being there in the beginning as the word, like John does. It is a simple, blunt beginning. It is to the point.

He simply says, the beginning of the gospel, where the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Essentially, that is who he was, and this is the story to prove it. And Mark begins in chapter 1 by really getting down to business, talking about John’s ministry and the fact that he was baptizing in the wilderness and he’s preaching repentance, and then all of a sudden Jesus is just there. And he’s baptized by John in verse 9. Jesus then goes through his temptations in verses 12 and 13 and begins his ministry in verse 14. He’s printing repentance, as John was, calling his first disciples, and healing and teaching many throughout Galilee. And then we find ourselves in chapter 2, where Jesus returns to Capernaum, heals the paralytic who had been lowered in through the roof.

But not only does he heal that man, but he states emphatically that he is the Son of God by first forgiving that man of his sins. And that is a wonderful story in and of itself. But what I want to focus on today is the story that follows that immediately in verse 13 through 17. So I’d like you to follow along with me there. Mark chapter 2, beginning in verse 13. He 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 the table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining 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.

1. Jesus Came Not to Call the Righteous, but Sinners

And yet people accepted him. They welcomed him into their homes and invited him to come and to be a part of what they were doing and to see what it was like to be a Christian. And it just made me really think about who are we calling? Who are we inviting in? Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. And Jesus, when he’s calling to his disciples, as I’m sure we all know, he didn’t call Pharisees and scribes and rabbis. He called fishermen and a tax collector. This is not the kind of people the Jews would have looked up to and thought was anybody great. These were not extraordinary men, they were ordinary men.

And Jesus calls Matthew or Levi, this tax collector. And his focus is on teaching people that needed to hear his message. In verse 13, again, Jesus is teaching. He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. It didn’t matter who it was, everybody that came to them, he was going to teach because he had a message that he needed to share. His focus was on their needs. He wanted to turn them away from the leaven of the Pharisees. He wanted to get them to understand that the traditions of the Pharisees were not right. And in fact, those Pharisees were leading the people away from what God really wanted. Jesus is trying to teach them about true religion, about God’s love, about the original intent of the law, which was mercy and not sacrifice.

2. Jesus Calls Levi the Tax Collector

And so the situation is set up perfectly where Jesus goes into the home of this sinner and dines with other sinners. He calls Levi the tax collector. And you think about who Levi was as a tax collector in Jewish first century society. Here is someone who would have been just universally despised. Nobody would have liked Levi. I mean, he was somebody who was basically being used by the Romans. He was being used and collaborating with Herod and the Romans. All these pious Jews would have despised him. He would have been an outcast, the lowest of the low, not only because of his collaboration with this evil empire, but because he was probably somewhat of a liar and a cheat. That’s what tax collectors did. They got a little bit more for themselves and they could make themselves rich.

He was probably a wealthy man. I mean, the fact that, as we read, you can kind of pick up on some things that his house was probably close to the sea. That’s prime real estate even today, right? When you get close to the water, you’re going to pay a little bit more for it. He had a nice house, it seems, by the sea, wherein he could entertain large amounts of people. That’s something that not many back then had.

And yet Jesus has no qualms about that. He’s showing us that no matter where we’re from, all walks of life, we can come together and work in God’s kingdom.

3. Reclining at Table With Tax Collectors and Sinners

As with the other apostles, Levi does not hesitate to leave all and follow Jesus in verse 14 when Jesus calls him with two simple words. Follow me. And he left Alga Ding and he followed him. And he takes Jesus back to his house to share a meal in verse 15. He says there that he reclined at table in his house. And what does that mean? To recline at table. That’s not a phrase that we use today. The ESV study Bible says that to recline a table indicates personal acceptance and cordiality. This is more than just inviting somebody over for a meal. This is accepting someone into your home. And the person who accepts that invitation will be accepting you as well. And when dining, it doesn’t goes on to say, when dining formally in a home, guests reclined on a couch that stretched around the three sides of the room.

The host took the central place surrounded by a U-shaped series of tables, and the most honored guests recline on either side of the host. So here was Matthew, having Jesus as the honored guest in his house. And the other guests were who? Tax collectors and sinners. That indicates a reception of those whom he ate with. This was a formal meal with Matthew as host, Jesus as honored guests, and many others surrounding them, whom the Pharisees and scribes would also have described as the lowest of the low. They would have deemed them unfit or unclean. And I think one thing that maybe is often lost on us is the connection between verses 15 through 17, this story of these people coming in and eating in this house in verses 13 and 14.

All these people who were following him and listening to him teach by the sea.

And the people that were in this house were tax collectors and sinners because that’s the people that Matthew knew. That’s the people he was hanging around with. These were his friends, his peers. And this oft-used phrase of tax collectors and sinners indicates this Pharisaic perspective that lumps both groups in together as they both disregarded the law of Moses. Both were despised. These were people who were, would have been criminals, thieves, prostitutes, adulterers, Sabbath breakers. Today they might have been drug users, alcoholics, whatever. They were the kind of people whom today we still look down on. We still don’t want to be around. We still shoe our kids away from and keep them on the opposite side of the street. Because we think they’re a little scary.

And they’re a little off. And a little dark. And a little lost. And yet there were many who followed him. When Jesus began his ministry, he didn’t go around and say, you know what, you people over here, you can’t follow me.

I can’t have you getting close to me. You might tarnish my reputation. You better go home. I can’t have the likes of you tarnishing my good name. And you know, after all, you’re all just going to be failures, and you’re all just going to end up turning back anyway. And he knew who was truly a follower, and who just really wanted to see miracles. You know, he knew all that. And so he just told them to get away, right? He didn’t do that. He wanted everyone to hear his message. He wanted everyone to see what it was that God’s love was really all about. Many followed him. And I would suppose that it was he who invited them in. And for that, the Pharisees derided him.

4. Why Is He Eating With Them?

Look back there in verse 16.

When they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, simply, why is he doing that? Why is he eating with them? With those people. According to Pharisaic interpretation, all Jews, but especially Jesus, who had quickly become a famed rabbi and leader, were to keep themselves clean. They were supposed to be pure from such people. By not associating with them, by not eating with them, by not accepting them. They were to follow strict rules laid out in Leviticus chapter 10 and verse 10 and verses 12 through 15. And they viewed eating with someone like this as a defilement of oneself. I mean, can you imagine? Just share your meal with someone. Oh, you’re unclean. But that’s what they thought. And the ESV study Bible again expands on the parallel passage in Luke 5 to the story by saying such table fellowship implies welcoming these people into extended interpersonal association, which the Pharisees thought would make a person unclean.

But just as Jesus would cleanse the leper rather than being made unclean by the leper, in Luke 5 and verse 13, so Jesus will bring sinners to repentance. Luke 5 and verse 32. And forgiveness rather than being defiled by association with the sinners. Jesus is trying to get them to see what is more important.

I’m going to bring the sinner to repentance rather than be defiled by the sinner. And yet that was not the attitude of the Pharisee. It was, I don’t really care about them. I care about me. I care about what I look like to others. I care about my own personal status, my own purity, my own standing in society. And so they thought they were better than everybody else. And the first and obvious point that has to be made here, I think, is their arrogance and failure to meet their own sinfulness. And danger that we all must avoid and yet fall into all too often. How often do we think? And we look around and we look at ourselves and say, well, at least I’m better than so-and-so.

Or at least I’m not doing that. Or what’s he doing over there talking to her? Or why is he over there with them? I wouldn’t be caught dead being friends with that person. That’s not the attitude that Christ calls us to have. Nor is the example that he clearly showed. What is it all about, brother? It’s about our attitude. Are we arrogant? Are we just accepting sinfulness or are we compassionate and trying to correct it lovingly?

I mean, think about it. Steve. What if your wife had never shown you compassion, never gave you a chance because you weren’t a Christian? Would you be here today?

5. A Third Path: Personal Purity and the Fellowship of Mercy

Most likely not. And we can stories like that are all over the place. The problem the Pharisees had was that they saw only two paths. Two alternatives. There was a path of purity by law keeping, or of defilement by a failure to keep the law. There was everything that was black and white. But what Jesus is showing us and was showing them was that there is a third path. There’s a path of personal purity and the fellowship of mercy. After all, it is not those who are well who are in need of a physician, but those who are sick. Jesus likens those who are well to those who are righteous. And those who are sick to sinners. But his point is that you need to judge for yourself who you are.

But you need to be wise in your discernment. Because the area of the Pharisees’ ways was that their judgment was, we’re righteous and we don’t need anything. We’re perfect, we’re fine, we keep the law. And the irony was that on account of their arrogance and their lack of mercy, the Pharisees were in fact the sick and the sinner. While the sinner that listened to Jesus’ words due to their penitence, were forgiven. And so then my question to us, the important question this afternoon. What is our attitude towards the sick? And it’s a simple message. Who are we calling? Do we view those around us that might be undesirables? Do we view them as unclean, as untouchables? People that we’re unwilling to even think about talking to?

6. Come As You Are, and I Can Make You Clean

Think about it, you know, they’re never going to want to hear the gospel. I’m not even going to bother. Or, you know, they don’t deserve it. Or are those the people that we go to because they are the ones that Jesus tells us need the gospel the most. And are possibly even more likely to be willing to listen to the message of salvation. We need to be careful that we don’t turn into the Pharisees that derided Jesus for associating, even talking to someone that they deemed unclean in their own righteousness, self-righteousness, and judgment. And it’s kind of on a side note. I think that we as New Testament Christians, I think like to deride, or maybe not like to, it might not be the right word, but end up doing it.

Deriding so-called come as you are churches. And to an extent, there’s there’s merit to it. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. If the supposition of that church is come as you are, and you don’t ever need to change anything, and Jesus just loves you no matter who you are, that would certainly be wrong. Or come as you are in your pajamas every Sunday and don’t really have any respect for God or His Word, then that would certainly be wrong. But come as you are is really the message of Jesus here in Mark chapter 2, isn’t it? Come as you are, and I can make you clean. Wasn’t Jesus ministering to people who are in all sorts of messes in their lives? And didn’t he say, Come as you are, and I can offer you forgiveness of sins if you turn and follow me?

Just as he told to his disciples. Just as he told to Matthew the tax collector, follow me. And he left everything and followed him and became his disciple. Everyone has that opportunity. That’s what Jesus was preaching and John was preaching back in chapter 1, the gospel of repentance. But who needs to repent more than those who are sinners? What if someone comes into this assembly and they’re dressed in a way that we would deem disrespectful? But only because they don’t know any better. What are we going to do? How are we going to react?

Don’t we need to adopt the attitude of come as you are and we will teach you the gospel? We will fix the things that need to be fixed as you learn and mature and grow in the mercy and grace of our Lord. No one expects you to be perfect right away because that’s impossible, and no one is perfect but Christ alone. But we are a group of people who are trying each and every day to be more and more like our Savior Jesus Christ. So who are we calling? Are we calling the sick? Or do we just want everyone who’s already got it together? And maybe they just need to iron a few little doctrinal issues out here and there. And maybe they, you know, they’re not willing to maybe say a prayer, but eventually down the road they’re willing to do that.

Is that who we want? The gospel’s message is a message for all.

Or maybe we just want somebody who can put a nice, hefty sum in the collection plate so that we can, you know, we can have a, we maybe we can get a new building, or maybe we can send some money, some preachers and foreign places and do some really good things. So we want somebody that can do that. And we see somebody they’re walking down the street and they’re in their Armani suit, and we say, oh wow, you know what? That would be a great addition right there. Who are we calling? Who are we taking the good news to? Or maybe the better question is, are we taking it at all? Or are we just keeping it to ourselves? Are we just assuming that no one will want to listen?

Conclusion

Because, brethren, there are plenty of sick people out there. Some look depart, and some don’t. Some look healthy. But they all need the gospel. They all need the mercy and saving grace found only in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord, our Savior, the perfect, sinless lamb of God. And I can tell you this much. If you’re to hear today in our audience, and you are the sick in this story, the tax collector, the sinner, Jesus is calling you today. And we are calling. He wants you to come home to him, to be his child, to abide in his love and his grace, and to find a home forever in heaven with him. If that is what you want. If that is what you know that you need than that.

Then won’t you come today? Come as you are. Believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died on the cross for your sins. Repent of those sins and confess His name as your Lord and Savior and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. That is the message of the gospel. Plain and simple. You don’t need to know anything more than that to become a Christian. And then we can work on molding you into the image that God created you to be.