WHAT IT MEANS TO FOLLOW CHRIST? (Part 1)

Text: LUKE 5:27-39

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INTRODUCTION:

1. In Mark 2 and Luke 5, we see the call of Levi, one of the twelve apostles. You may be wondering: I do not recall any apostle by that name (cf. Matt.9:9).
2. Levi (Matthew) was a Jewish publican (tax collector) working for the Roman government. Such men were hated by their fellow Jews, not only for their collaboration with Rome, but because many of them were notoriously dishonest.
3. One day when Levi was at work, "sitting at the receipt of custom" (tax office – Luke 5:27), our Lord passed by and said to him, "Follow me."
4. Without any hesitation, Levi "left all, rose up, and followed him." Allow me to stop here for a moment and ask: What about you?
5. Are you willing to drop everything and follow the Lord? Some of you are probably thinking, "He must be speaking to someone else." Maybe not – maybe the Holy Spirit is speaking right now to you.
6. Think for a moment about Levi’s call. Think of the consequences – he wrote the first Gospel. Think of the consequences if every man and woman, boy and girl, that entered into this building "left all" and followed Christ!
7. Think of the consequences if every person who received a Gospel tract read the tract and repented of their sin and trusted Christ! And then decided to follow Christ!
8. I have entitled today’s message, "What it Means to Follow Christ."
9. My first point is that Christ wants us to leave everything and follow Him.

1. CHRIST WANTS US TO LEAVE EVERYTHING AND FOLLOW HIM (Luke 5:27-29)

1. This must have been a tremendous sacrifice on Levi’s part, for tax collectors were quite wealthy. If following our Lord did not work out for the other apostles, they could always go back to fishing.
2. It would not be difficult to return to their trade. But when Levi walked away from his job, he was through. They would never take him back after he walked away from his job.
3. His was a total commitment. But he did it with no regrets – he was quite happy and held a "great feast" (5:29).
4. I believe the reason Levi made this great feast was to introduce his unsaved friends to Jesus. Are you introducing your unsaved friends to Jesus? "A converted man will not wish to go to heaven alone" – J.C. Ryle.
5. There is something wrong with Christians who never try and get people saved.
6. The scribes and the Pharisees "murmured against our Lord and his disciples for eating and drinking with publicans and sinners (5:30).
7. There is nothing wrong with eating and drinking with sinners as long as you are not indulging in their vices. For example, it is wrong to drink alcohol with them or to laugh at their dirty jokes, and so on; but there is nothing wrong with eating a meal with them and telling them the Gospel.
8. Harry Ironside said, "One thing of which you may be sure: He was not having a jolly time with them. One of the great curses today is the devil’s mission of amusement…The devil finds all sorts of things to amuse the people in order to keep them from thinking and facing the realities of eternity. Jesus did not meet with Matthew’s friends in order to amuse them. He was speaking faithfully and earnestly about things pertaining to the kingdom. Always serious, He was there to save them and bring them to God."
9. The next point I would like to draw out from this wonderful story is that Christ wants us to repent of our sins.

2. CHRIST WANTS US TO REPENT OF OUR SINS (5:30-35)

1. Over and over the Bible teaches that Jesus came into this world to save sinners (cf. I Tim.1:15; Luke 5:31,32).
2. The problem with the Pharisees, and with most religious people, is that they did not consider themselves "sinners." In fact, they considered themselves to be "righteous."
3. So when Jesus said that He did not come "to call the righteous," they figured that His message was not for them (5:32).
4. According to their way of thinking, they were not "sick," therefore they did not need a "physician" (5:31).
5. The Pharisees were proud, arrogant, self-righteous and spiritually blind. They felt no sense of conviction and no need to repent.
6. On the other hand, the publicans (tax collectors) were aware of their sinful, lost condition. They were getting saved, while the Pharisees remained lost and on their way to hell.
7. The publicans and sinners repented whereas the Pharisees refused to repent. The great theme of repentance is very prominent in the gospel of Luke (cf. 3:3,8; 10:13,14; 11:32; 13:3,5; 15:7,10,17; 16:30; 17:3,4; 24:47).
8. We need to emphasize to this wicked and ungodly generation that unless they repent of their sin, they will spend eternity in hell.
9. Next, our Lord was asked about fasting (5:33). The practice of fasting was prevalent in Israel. In the Bible you will see that fasting always accompanies prayer (cf. Luke 5:33; Daniel 9:3).
10. However, in the days of our Lord, fasting had degenerated among the Pharisees into an external observance used to impress people (cf. Matt.6:16-18).
11. The Pharisees were constantly observing our Lord and His disciples to see whether they conformed to their Pharisaical traditions and practices. They noticed that neither our Lord nor His disciples fasted. On the other hand, John the Baptist fasted.
12. Therefore, they wanted to know why our Lord and His disciples did not fast (5:33).
13. Our Lord used the imagery of a wedding to illustrated His point (5:34,35). A wedding is a time of rejoicing, not mourning. Christ is "the bridegroom" and those who are saved are "the children of the bride-chamber" (5:34,35).
14. After our Lord’s death – "when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them" – then His disciples would fast (5:35).
15. We have seen two important steps in following Christ: leaving everything behind (5:27,28), and repentance (5:31,32). Finally, there has to be sincere willingness to put away false religion – that is the meaning of the parable of the new garment and the new wine bottles (5:36-39).

3. CHRIST DID NOT COME INTO THIS WORLD TO REFORM A WORTHLESS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM (5:36-39).

1. In this parable, Pharisaism is represented by old, worn-out garments and wine bottles (leather wine-skins, made from the skins of sheep and goats).
2. Some people try to "patch up" their dead religion with a little Bible reading and some interest in spiritual things. They may even attend a church like ours where the Gospel is preached, but they will not come forward to trust Christ.
3. But our Lord showed the absurdity of this by saying that putting a new patch on an old garment ruins both garments (5:36).
4. Likewise, old worn-out wine-skins were useless and worthless. This was our Lord’s estimation of the religion of the Pharisees. He said it would not be a good idea to put new wine into an old wine-skin (5:37,38).
5. "The new wine of the gospel must be placed in the new wine-skin of grace, not into the old one of law" – J. Vernon McGee.
6. "You are not to try to mix the grace of the gospel with the cold legality of Judaism" – H.A. Ironside.
7. Don’t restrict or limit this parable to first-century Pharisees. Their temple was destroyed in AD 70, their priesthood ended, their religious system died out. But there are plenty of unsaved religious Pharisees around today.
8. They are trusting in their good works to get them into heaven, trusting in their baptism, or other so-called "sacraments," trusting in their church membership, etc.
9. Are you like that? If so, you need to get saved. Oftentimes, when people ask an unsaved person why they do not receive Christ, they are told, "I have my own religion," or "I have been confirmed," or "I go to my own church." These things have nothing to do with salvation.
10. New life in Christ, lived in the power of the Holy Spirit, cannot be forced into the old bottles of ritualistic and formalistic religion.
11. Any dead, formalistic religion, which leaves out the Gospel, and leaves out salvation is useless and should be discarded like an old worn-out garment or wine bottle.
12. Any church that does not teach the necessity of the new birth is not only useless but dangerous, and is leading souls to hell!
13. The Pharisees were told that their religion could not be mixed with the Gospel, but they refused to listen. To them, "The old is better" (5:39).
14. Too many people are satisfied with their dead, liberal churches and their phony religion. They have no desire to get saved. They have no desire to change. To them, "The old is better" (5:39).
15. Worldly, ritualistic religion is far more suited to the carnal, unsaved man than the gospel of God’s grace. With his old religion, he can still feel religious without having to repent and change. Therefore, to him, "The old is better."

CONCLUSION:

1. In one of Aesop’s Fables, an eagle was flying in the heavens and as he looked down, he spotted a stork down in an old, dirty well.
2. He saw the stork eating frogs and asked him, "Why don’t you come up here and fly?" The stork asked the eagle if there were any frogs up in the sky and the eagle said, "No, there are none, but it is beautiful to fly high up into the heavens."
3. The stork replied: ‘You can keep your heaven, and I will keep my frogs."
4. That’s the way most worldly people are. They are telling God – you can keep your heaven, I am content with my worldly pleasures. I am satisfied with my life the way it is. I do not want to be born again."
5. Unsaved friend: what about you?