Teacher: Pastor Chet Lowe

Main Scripture: Mark 2

Date of Message: October 23, 2022

• Mark is constantly communicating through his Gospel that believers can begin again
• Mark 2
  • v. 14 Jesus invites Levi (Matthew) to join His team
    • Matthew was a Levite and should have been a Levitical priest
    • But instead he was a corrupt tax collector working with the Roman government
      • We know they were corrupt from passages like Luke 3:12-13 and Luke 19:8
        • He would have extorted the other disciples like Peter and John
    • Jesus looked past this reputation and saw an evangelist, not an extorter (1 Peter 4:8)
      • Matthew became a minister of the Gospel to the Jews
        • His new name means “gift of God”
        • His Gospel is full of Old Testament references
        • He dies a martyrs death for it
    • Followers of Jesus are
      • Sacrificial (Luke 9:23-24)
      • Loving (John 13:35)
      • Fruitful (John 15:8)
      • Hearers and doers of the word (John 8:31)
  • v. 15 In return, Matthew invites Jesus and the team to his house
    • His life was not “all cleaned up” yet, but he was passionate about his relationship with Jesus (Luke 5:28)
    • He invites both the Christians and the sinners into his house
      • This is Jesus’ heart—He was in the world but not of it
  • v. 16-17 Jesus is a healing physician
    • The Pharisees and Scribes saw these guests as problems, but Jesus saw His patients (Matthew 9:13)
      • Jesus is compassionate, available and able to heal
  • v. 18-20 Jesus is a joyful groom
    • The other group of Pharisees and the disciples of John are seeking Jesus in their confusion about Him and His disciples’ way of life as compared to what they’re used to
      • Jesus uses John’s language to bring clarity for them (John 3:29)
      • He clarifies that in His presence there is fullness of joy
  • v. 21-22 Jesus is doing something new!
    • They had been bound up in the heaviness of religion (Matthew 23:4)
      • Jesus makes it clear that we can’t combine our old religious ways of doing things and His new way
        • This resurrection life and the power of the Holy Spirit are too powerful

Selah Memory Verse: Romans 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Challenge to Change: Look at the world with the eyes of Jesus and find someone who needs healing.